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On HBO's “The Gilded Age,” Ben Ahlers is New York high society’s man of the hour
By
Sonia Rao
Published Nov 5, 2026 at 11:00 a.m. ET
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TheStewartofNY/GC Images
By
Sonia Rao
Published Nov 5, 2026 at 11:00 a.m. ET
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A few years ago, actor Ben Ahlers came home to his Bushwick apartment building after a night out and heard music playing through a neighbor’s front door. As he got closer, he realized that he recognized the sound of the furiously moving strings: It was the orchestral theme to “The Gilded Age,” in which he plays inventor Jack Trotter. The HBO period series, set in late 19th-century New York City, was Ahlers’ big break.
Ahlers told Gothamist in a recent interview that he hadn’t expected an overlap between Bushwick night owls and people who watch “The Gilded Age.” But that expectation shifted as the soapy drama about New York high society exploded in popularity. With the series now back for a fourth season, Ahlers said he isn’t even surprised anymore by “bald Long Island dads” coming up to him to confess that their wives converted them into fans.
The actor, who played Happy Loman earlier this year in the Broadway revival of “Death of a Salesman,” is adapting to his growing fame at the same time his “Gilded Age” character adjusts to newfound wealth. It wasn’t common for working-class Americans in the late 19th century to rise quickly in rank, and yet that’s exactly happens when Jack, a former footman, makes a small fortune patenting and selling an efficient alarm clock (a feat inspiring legions of “Gilded Age” fans to refer to Ahlers as “Clock Twink” online; more on that later).
“Jack made a lot of money very quickly, and as exciting as that is … a whole new world opens up to him that he’s completely unfamiliar with and alone in,” Ahlers said. “I am hopeful and nervous and excited to watch him navigate this world while trying to keep the lovable playfulness and purity that got him to the table in the first place.”
The money is a miracle to Jack, who uses some of it to buy a furnished townhouse. But in the fourth season, it becomes abundantly clear that he still feels most at home with the servants he once worked with at the Van Rhijn household. He swings by the Van Rhijns’s downstairs kitchen — “Gilded Age” creator Julian Fellowes channels another of his works, “Downton Abbey” with this upstairs/downstairs dynamic — to regale his friends with the tale of how he struggled to eat an artichoke while dining with richer folks.
In real life, Ahlers still doesn’t know how to eat a whole artichoke: “I did the best I could,” he said. Filming the kitchen debrief reminded him of what it felt like to return home to small-town Iowa during his first few years at the University of Michigan, when he was still “fresh off the hog truck.” He was a former high school athlete studying musical theater alongside classmates who had attended performing arts academies, a contrast he described as “both really intimidating and really, really exhilarating.”
Jack Trotter gazes upon his creation in the second season of "The Gilded Age."
Barbara Nitke/HBO
Ahlers left Michigan during his senior year, moving to New York to appear in what turned out to be a short-lived NBC drama called “The Village.” He spent time in Los Angeles and Vancouver after the show was canceled, but returned to New York in January 2020 to begin preparing for the supporting role he had just booked on “The Gilded Age.”
Production was set to begin March 3, 2020. That did not happen. When the cast finally regrouped to shoot that fall, with the pandemic raging on, “we were all confused and scared and doubtful, and there was this sort of existential weight,” Ahlers said. Playing Jack, a happy-go-lucky footman chasing a pipe dream, inspired him to keep going. He dove in deep, even taking classes with the Horological Society of New York ahead of the second season to better understand clockmaking. Earlier this year, he co-hosted the society’s gala.
“To be able to step into the world of Jack, who had so much optimism and so much playfulness, reminded me of that part of myself,” he said. “It’s not like I had to tap into a past memory of when I was optimistic. It was as if Jack called me into that space.”
The entire experience of working on “The Gilded Age” has been surreal for Ahlers, who said “if 17-year-old Ben in Iowa was given a glimpse into what I’m doing, he wouldn’t believe it.” And he definitely wouldn’t know how to respond to “Clock Twink.”
As an adult, Ahlers isn’t sure what to make of the cheeky nickname, either. (A “twink” is gay slang for a boyish-looking man with a slender build. It should be noted that, as someone who stands 6-foot-2 and clearly once played high school football, he doesn’t really strike you as a twink in real life.) The actor is flattered by all the attention, of course, but recognizes that a good portion of the fandom — such as the Long Islanders converting their husbands to “Gilded Age” watchers — probably aren’t participating in the “Clock Twink” and “Railroad Daddy” discourse online.
“What’s so difficult about tracking that experience is that so much of the interaction exists on the internet,” Ahlers said. “Depending on what day of the week it is, the internet sometimes feels like the only real thing in the world — and also just this hologram of meaninglessness. It’s very difficult to have a realistic understanding of … how people feel about me apart from the handful engaging with it online.”
It’s not so unlike the uncertainty Jack feels as a newer guest at lavish salons and dinner parties, knowing that he was recently serving people at these very events. Are they truly accepting of his brand new status? Are they gossiping behind his back? In the end, he doesn’t seem to care — he has his inventor brain and the support of his found family.
“To have Jack as the backbone of my career over the last seven years, with all of the volatility and this massive transition that we’re going through as a collective … has been really cool,” Ahlers said. “Jack has this steady, optimistic positivity and an awareness that allows him to roll with the punches. He’s given me more than I’ve given him.”
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Sonia Rao
Sonia Rao is a culture reporter for WNYC and Gothamist. She previously covered entertainment and breaking news at The Washington Post. Got a tip? Email [email protected].
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