NOW YOU SEE HER

Bertha Russell would be so disappointed. When Carrie Coon, who plays the calculating social climber on The Gilded Age, sits down at the Regency Bar & Grill, just a few blocks and about 140 years from the fictional mansion where her character resides, it's the tail end of the restaurant's infamous power breakfast—a crucial error in timing for anyone hoping to rub elbows with New York City's ruling class.

- ADAM RATHE

“If you're not seeing those people, what's the point?” Coon asks, imagining her character's horror at the faux pas. “Why are you even out at this hour?” It doesn't seem to cross her mind that at this very moment she is the room's main attraction.

Part of what makes Coon so compelling is that she'd seemingly never notice such a thing—or at least she wouldn't let on if she did. The 44-year-old actress isn't only the Emmy-nominated star of The Gilded Age, she's a pivotal player in the much anticipated, shrouded in secrecy third season of The White Lotus (out February 16), as well as a lead in such recent films as His Three Daughters, Lake George, and Another Happy Day. She's also a veteran of the Avengers and Ghost-busters franchises, as well as pop culture touchstones like The Leftovers, Fargo, and Gone Girl. Still, she says, “the average American doesn't know who I am. I can walk down the street. I can go to the grocery store. Most of the moms at school have no idea. I've had conversations with people about shows I'm on, and they still don't know they're talking to me. It's amazing.”

That may be the case, but possibly not for long. Coon's back-to-back starring roles on The Gilded Age and The White Lotus, two prestige TV juggernauts, will put her in millions of living rooms, and at the center of endless Monday morning memes, over the coming months. It's tempting to think of this moment as a grand arrival for the actress, but the truth is Carrie Coon is already at the top of her game; she just hasn't stopped and waited for us to notice.

“Carrie exists in her own category,” says David Fincher, the director who gave Coon her first feature film role, as Margo, the twin sister of Ben Affleck's Nick Dunne, in