The new Netflix show, “Queen Charlotte: a Bridgerton Story,” is a prequel to the wildly popular “Bridgerton” series, with the early lives of some of its characters. But it is not based on the Bridgerton books by Julia Quinn, and it was not the idea of the original series producer, Shonda Rhimes. It was the idea of a Netflix executive, who called Rhimes with the idea. She was immediately captivated by two thoughts. First, this would be inspired by the real-life couple King George III and the 17-year-old bride he met on their wedding day, Queen Charlotte, a German princess. And second, this would allow Rhimes to explore the people and the struggles behind the near-idyllic racial harmony of the Royal Court in the original series.
In an interview, the actors who play the young King George (Corey Mylchreest), Lady Agatha Danbury (Adjoa Andoh), and the young (India Amarteifio) and older (Golda Rosheuvel) Queen Charlotte talked about which ones had to play catch-up with the original series, their favorite fabulous costumes, and how the racial dynamics deepen the storyline.
Corey, you are directed to be charming in your first meeting with Charlotte. What does young George do to pretend to be charming?
COREY MYLCHREEST: George’s way of making himself charming is by putting up a wall and making everything about the other person. Which is almost how you are charming in real life, along with more openness and vulnerability. George’s way is definitely to shut down, become something else and make it all about his attention on someone else.
Did the two Queen Charlottes share views about the character, the physicality, the way she changes from the strong but naïve teenager to the imperious queen? Was that a challenge?
GOLDA ROSHEUVEL: There is no challenge because we don’t talk about any of that stuff. We allow the two people playing that role to investigate and find out for themselves how to get into this journey and how to create the character for themselves.
You may not have coordinated with the older versions of yourself, but what did you pick up about your characters as you watched the original series?
INDIA AMARTEIFIO: Golda is obviously fantastic. I was just watching her as an actor going, “Wow, she’s really created another person.” And I was completely invested. And then, finding out that I was having to play the role, I rewatched it and was like, “No, this is terrifying.” It looked like years and years of practice and years and years of knowing oneself and what’s right. And her sense of duty was all intact. But I also knew that that was probably all a facade and all a lie to cope with her husband. So, lots of layers.
Golda, one of the first episode’s highlights is when we see Queen Charlotte in the “Bridgerton” period, and she is very unhappy with her 13 adult children.
GOLDA ROSHEUVEL: It’s a very complex relationship and a joy to be in the room with those 13 actors physically. Because I’ve had that imagination of family and children through “Bridgerton,” but then to actually have them sitting with you in the room and putting faces to them is quite extraordinary. I loved it. We had real good fun that day trying to find all the different kinds of characters because there’s a lot of them. For me, at the core and the root of it, this whole series is love.
But I’ve been watching “Succession.” I’m really interested in the siblings and their relationship. On the surface, they seem to absolutely hate each other because what they say to each other is vile. But then, when one of them is attacked, all three of them band together to be a core, and the love goes poof. That was the same kind of feeling with my children, that, yes, there was this surface stuff that was going on, but at the core of it, she talks about love to her son, about that being a choice, and how that is important for her and George. That foundation is about love, but yet the surface is quite complicated. That duty of the line being continued is very much there in my strand.
What is it about the Regency period or even the fantasy Regency period that just draws us back into it all the time? None of us would want to live in it, and yet we utterly romanticize it.
ARSEMA THOMAS: “Bridgerton” is one of the first shows that has been able to use the period genre and make it episodic. And there is something very mysterious about the Regency period because it is not even visually one that we think of, because it’s not the time of corsets and massive weight like Marie Antoinette when we think 18, 1700s. But it is really about the story that is happening during that time period rather than the Regency period itself.
