‘Queen Charlotte’ Stars on Show’s Inclusive Portrayal of Black Women and Overcoming ‘Bridgerton’ Pressures
The Queen of the Ton is back, but this time as a teenager in Netflix’s Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story. The prequel of Shonda Rhimes’ Bridgerton series follows a 17-year-old Queen Charlotte as she navigates her new life as the wife of King George III and the instantaneous changes she has to make in order to thrive as a future matriarch.
At the Los Angeles premiere of Queen Charlotte on Wednesday, Golda Rosheuvel — who reprises her role as the adult version of Charlotte in the new series — said viewers will learn more about what she experienced over the course of her life that makes her as strong as she was in Bridgerton.“You’re going to know about her vulnerability and how human she is and her strength in knowing who she is,” Rosheuvel told The Hollywood Reporter. “Then when she is in those vulnerable positions, she still stands strong in her own self. Even at 17 when she arrives and marries George, she is unapologetic, she knows who she is, she stands firm in her own self.”
Although fans can expect to see Rosheuvel take the screen in a series of flash-forwards to present day, there will be six episodes with Charlotte as a young adult, played by India Ria Amarteifio, who has the support of a young Lady Danbury, played by Arsema Thomas. “The people in the world of Bridgerton forced them together,” Thomas said, because they are both Black women. “They know each other in a different, unspoken way. By just getting to that level of authenticity was the way that they realized that their friendship is actually saving them.”
Playing opposite of Amarteifio’s Charlotte is King George, played by Corey Mylchreest, who said although he initially felt pressure to step into this role, it was a great experience. “It was very hard for me to not think I was following in the footsteps [of past leading men Regé Jean Page and Jonathan Bailey]” he said. “I can just remove myself and they can be a thing of its own and I actually felt no pressure to play George. I fell in love with him when I did research about him,” adding “it felt like giving a silent friend a voice.”
After the Queen Charlotte premiere screening, the cast took part in a Q&A touching on topics including relationships, friendships and how impactful it was seeing the Queen wear afros and a plethora of other natural hairstyles for the representation of non-ambiguous Black women.
Thomas recalled how from the beginning when she went into hair and makeup for Lady Danbury, she had a reference sheet of R&B/hip hop artist Lauryn Hill who has a deeper skin complexion like she does, as well as natural hair.
“There’s something about Black hair that I don’t think we necessarily put value upon,” she said. “There’s one thing about a Black person being there, but a Black person being themselves … so to be able to see it completely embraced in all of its different and beautiful facets is validation that I matter and that girls that look like me matter and we should never forget it at all.”
Rosheuvel also shared a similar story about the time when while in hair and makeup for Charlotte, her own natural hair was embraced for the character. “I was emotional because it was such a moment of ‘I’m being seen not only as an actress, as a person of color, but this character is being seen through these ideals of hair and makeup.’” She added, “I will never, ever forget it.”
