On this episode of Bridgerton: The Official Podcast, Golda Rosheuvel (Queen Charlotte) and Adjoa Andoh (Lady Danbury) join Gabrielle Collins to talk about their roles on Bridgerton, their backgrounds in the theater, what it means to them for Black people to be represented in an historical piece, and some of their hopes for their characters in season two. They discuss the magic of the table read, when all the characters become real: “It’s life appearing right in front of your eyes,” Golda says. “The human is being created.” But more than that, it was the stage directions (read out loud by executive producer Betsy Beers) that gave them the best sense of what the show was going to be. “It was like firecrackers going off every two seconds which immediately gave you the sense of, ‘It’s not Jane Austen, my dears. It’s its own thing here.’”
Though both women are aristocrats in the story, Queen Charlotte has a higher status than Lady Danbury; even so, it’s clear there’s a real relationship between them, which becomes obvious in the scene where Lady Danbury curtsies and Queen Charlotte asks, “Is that as far as you can go?” and Lady Danbury replies, “With these knees?” Adjoa compares it to when Michelle Obama met Queen Elizabeth and they bonded over the uncomfortable shoes they had to wear: There was status, respect, and tradition all wrapped up in their meeting, but for just a moment, “they were just two women, complaining about how their feet hurt!”
Golda talks about growing up biracial, and how playing Queen Charlotte allowed her to channel her white mother in ways other roles had never allowed. Her mother was “very posh,” growing up with a nanny and butler, “so to be able to speak with her voice and her tones, and channel her as this really powerful, beautiful, generous matriarch in my family, is a dream come true.” Adjoa praises the series for showing historical London with a bit more reality than other historical dramas, pointing out that 20,000 free Black people lived in London at the time and more than a fifth of the British Navy were men of African heritage. “Usually actors of color go, ‘Oh, a period drama. That’s another job I won’t get, moving on.’” Now, “there’s something that finally goes, ‘You are here. I see you. You exist.’ It’s being able to say to all audiences, ‘You are all welcome to the Bridgerton party.’” Hear more from these fascinating actresses on this episode of Bridgerton: The Official Podcast.
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