“Dearest gentle reader,” The creative mastermind behind the “Bridgerton” novels that inspired the popular Netflix series is making her way to the Queen City.
You can step into the world of Regency period romance as New York Times bestselling author Julia Quinn comes to Charlotte for two Bridgerton-style events Saturday, Feb. 15. As part of a joint effort between the Charlotte Museum of History and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Library, the author of almost 40 books will be speaking at a free Q&A session before dancing the night away at “Queen Charlotte’s Ball” with live music, interactive workshops, a costume competition and more.
“The Charlotte Museum of History is all about making history fun and accessible, and nobody does that better than Julia Quinn,” said Terri White, president and CEO of the history museum. “Not to mention that Quinn’s novels share stories based on the life of our city’s namesake, Queen Charlotte. We are excited to present Queen Charlotte’s Ball & Banquet to celebrate the fashion, romance and history of the world of ‘Bridgerton.’ ”
Ahead of her visit, Quinn spoke to CharlotteFive about her beloved book series, the success of television pioneer Shonda Rhimes, bringing her stories to the big screen and the newest Netflix season coming out soon. (Note: The conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.) C5: Where did your interest and inspiration for writing the “Bridgerton” series come from? Quinn: “I’m actually gonna answer a slightly different question, which is where did the inspiration for the Bridgerton family come from. Actually, the character of Simon came first. I had met somebody who had a pretty severe stutter and I was really kinda fascinated by it because I’m pretty chatty and was wondering what it would be like to have that much difficulty communicating. And so I did all this research in stuttering and then I ended up giving Simon this really terrible childhood because of it. And I just thought, you know, he deserves to marry into the best family ever, and that’s how the Bridgerton family came about.”
“It really is just what I love to read. I have been reading historical romantics set in the Regency as my fun books for years. It was what I read for pleasure and so I think it just makes sense that when I went to write a novel I would write the type of books that I love. I think it’s just that honestly.”
C5: Looking back to your first book of the series, how does it feel to look at all of the success that’s come since then, especially with the Netflix series? Quinn: “It’s just surreal. It’s absolutely surreal. There’s no other word for it. I mean, the book series was very successful within the world of romance novels prior. It never went out of print, it always had a lot of readers, but this is just the next level. I have no words, and I write words for a living.” C5: Can you share more about the choice and impact of race-blind casting (casting an actor without taking their race or ethnicity into account) for the Netflix series? Quinn: “Well first of all I wanna point out that the producers don’t actually like to call it ‘race-blind casting’ because that implies that there was no thought given at all. That it was just sort of ‘We’re gonna go out there, we’re gonna pick whoever seems best.’ They call it more color-conscious casting because there is thought that goes into it, and a true color-blind casting would end up with a Bridgerton family that maybe didn’t even look biologically related or anything like that… I was not part of that decision but I support it 100%. I think it’s amazing. I think anything that can allow more people to see themselves in a story that is big and romantic and glamorous and has a happy ending is a great thing.”
Quinn: “I have very little involvement. You know, one of the first things that happens when someone comes to you asking about adapting your novel for film or television is they ask you if you’re willing to give up creative control. And I immediately said yes for a couple reasons. “The first one was just this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Nobody in my field had ever had anything adapted like this. The closest would be ‘Outlander’ — which is amazing and wonderful and I adore it — but it’s not truly a romance novel. It is this big, sweeping fantasy that has a lot of romance in it but it’s not a romance novel and so I really didn’t want to do anything to mess up this deal. “I wanted to be a delight to work with, but also it’s really easy to have this attitude when the people who are knocking on your door are the people from (Shonda Rhimes’ production company) Shondaland because they have such an incredible track record. They are so good at what they do. Their values align with mine and so I felt completely confident in giving up creative control.”
Quinn: “That was insane. When I found out that Julie Andrews was going to be doing that, I stopped breathing for long enough that I legitimately should be dead. That was the craziest part of all. I could not believe that, and I have to tell you, I’m not sure people realize just how good she is because I see some clips or some versions that are a little bit early and I have seen an episode where she hadn’t come in and done her part yet and they had somebody else reading it. And the person was not bad, but boy it’s not Julie Andrews and it’s a huge difference. So that was just crazy, but just in general it’s incredible. It’s incredible because it’s my story but it’s also not exactly my story because now it’s become something else. It has more creative people involved in it and so it has, you know, developed to become more visual, become something you hear. It’s become something bigger because it’s a different type of experience and it’s just amazing. It’s lovely. It’s everything.” C5: For the Queen Charlotte series, it was noted that it was fiction inspired by fact. Tell me more about the creative process behind sharing that bit of history.
Quinn: “I co-wrote the book that was based on the show so it’s kind of like reverse engineering. So I was not involved with the development of that story. What happened was Shonda (Rhimes) wrote six scripts and then she turned the scripts over to me and I adapted them into a novel which was actually a fascinating process because it’s very much like doing a puzzle and I love puzzles. But I always tell people that if there was any part of that story that made you cry, that’s Shonda’s fault, not mine, because she was the one who developed the initial story so I wasn’t really part of the creative process that came up with the exact story.”
Quinn: “I co-wrote the book that was based on the show so it’s kind of like reverse engineering. So I was not involved with the development of that story. What happened was Shonda (Rhimes) wrote six scripts and then she turned the scripts over to me and I adapted them into a novel which was actually a fascinating process because it’s very much like doing a puzzle and I love puzzles. But I always tell people that if there was any part of that story that made you cry, that’s Shonda’s fault, not mine, because she was the one who developed the initial story so I wasn’t really part of the creative process that came up with the exact story.”
