'Bridgerton's' Golda Rosheuvel peels back Queen Charlotte's layers

“Bridgerton” returned last week with a new Regency-era love story for us to follow, as Viscount Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey) decides to settle down in the name of fulfilling his family duty. The season sets up a love triangle between Anthony and two newcomers to the ton: Edwina Sharma (Charithra Chandran), the practical marriage choice, and her tradition-eschewing sister Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley), with whom the Viscount shares a dizzyingly passionate connection.

Season 2 doesn’t have as much bodice-ripping as the show’s first season, but it does feature more of the fan favorite Queen Charlotte, played to scene-stealing delight by Golda Rosheuvel. The royal tastemaker is intent on finding out the identity of Lady Whistledown, the anonymous gossipmonger exposing the secrets (and hypocrisy) of London’s elite. It was while filming the eight-episode second season that Rosheuvel learned her role would expand even further — into a forthcoming prequel about the younger versions of Queen Charlotte; the Bridgerton family matriarch, Violet (Ruth Gemmell); and Lady Danbury (Adjoa Andoh). “It’s written by Shonda Rhimes, which is like a dream come true,” Rosheuvel said.

As it turns out, Rhimes has been inspiring Rosheuvel since long before she donned the queen’s heavy crown. The London-based actress talked to The Washington Post earlier this month about the latest season of the Netflix series, the “Bridgerton” fan base and finding the “vulnerability” of her beloved character.

Q: Queen Charlotte has a much bigger role this season. Do you have any sense of whether that is because you were such a fan favorite in Season 1?

A: Oh gosh, you hope so, don’t you? The fans have been absolutely fantastic. As far as I’m concerned, they’re the best fans in the world. We have a really strong fan base in Brazil. They were fans of the books right from the get-go — before “Bridgerton” [the series] was even kind of thought about. So it’s wonderful that they’ve taken us into their family and into their arms and really celebrate us. That’s always nice, isn’t it? When fans kind of go, “Yes, we approve.”

Q: Other actors from popular Netflix series have said the level of fandom and recognition can be kind of explosive. Did you feel like your life changed after you were on this show because it was so popular?

A: To a certain extent, yes. My social media went from 10 people to now 54,000. [Editor’s note: Since this interview and Season 2’s subsequent debut, that number has grown to more than 68,000 followers.] So in that respect, yeah, there’s a lot more eyes upon you, which is great because it means that people are really investing in what you do and that’s what you want as an actress. You put things out there — I never think that anybody is going to like what I do. It’s really amazing when they do like it and it kind of makes it all worthwhile. All those 4 a.m. pickups to go and shoot a day’s filming is definitely worth it when you have that support behind you.

Q: What was the first signal for you that the show had really taken off?

A: The first indication was when it went out on Christmas Day [in 2020]. I mean, you know, Boxing Day, the next day, it was like, “OK. Wow. All right, this is something special.” And in sad circumstances with covid and shutdowns and lockdowns all across the world, it just felt really special that everybody had connected to this amazing fantasy world that reflected the world that we’re living in today, and was inclusive and had a really diverse cast, but yet had glitz and glamour and fabulous costumes and wigs and gorgeous stately homes to look at. I think the universe was aligned on that day and it was magic.

Q: How familiar with Shonda Rhimes were you?

A: Very. I watched “Grey’s Anatomy” when it first came out. “How to Get Away with Murder.” “Scandal” was something that helped me through another job: I was playing Othello as a woman, and Olivia Pope was a real kind of inspiration for me and a real kind of lean post for me while I was doing that role. Olivia Pope — and Kerry Washington’s performance — just really kind of lended itself to Othello and what she was going through and the world that Othello has to navigate. I watched all of that box set through rehearsals and playing the role.

Q: You played Othello as a woman and you also played Mercutio (from “Romeo and Juliet”) as a woman. There’s been so much conversation about Queen Charlotte being a Black woman in “Bridgerton,” and of course there’s a historical basis for that. But it still subverts people’s expectations. Do you feel like that’s a throughline in your work that you look to challenge the audience and viewers?

A: I never seek roles. I haven’t yet done that. It was never something that was in my brain to do — roles always kind of came to me. And I think for the first part of my career, or up until now, I think that was a really healthy and good way to go. It just so happened that the roles that came to me were ones that I could say something. I don’t cast myself as a political person at all. But through my work, political ideas — ideas of humanity — come out. So, I feel very blessed in that way that that’s been the trajectory. And now [that] my agency has risen because of “Bridgerton,” I think that I’m looking for roles more now that I want to delve into. I think for me, that’s about challenging myself, understanding who I am as an actress and what I want to say through my work.

Q: What do you like about playing Queen Charlotte?

A: Queen Charlotte, she’s comfortable to me. I know her as a character so well, and it’s such an honor to — you know, I’m a biracial actress, biracial person — and to be able to kind of channel my mom and to really celebrate my White side and the way I was brought up and where I’ve been brought up in my childhood and stuff is really important. I think there’s not enough talked about biracial people and artists and how they balance their two heritages or their worlds or their paths or their journeys. And I think there’s space for that dialogue to happen.

Q: I wanted to ask you about the fashion and the wigs, which were as fabulous as ever. How collaborative is that process?

A: You have to stick to the Georgian outline of it. But then within that, you can play around and do lots of things. It’s a very collaborative experience. And also what I found really helpful this time around is how we’ve been able to make the wigs lighter with finding different structures and different materials to actually create the structure so that it’s not so heavy on my head. Because although the first season was amazing and they were works of art, the weight of them was quite intense. This time around, the kind of mechanics of it has been looked at and we’ve discussed different material and how we were going to create these works of art with lighter material.

Q: There was a really tender scene in Season 2 where the king [King George III, who suffered from mental illness] comes in and is very confused and Edwina talks to him kindly and escorts him out. I just wanted to ask you about that scene because I loved it and it stood out to me.

A: Yeah, I love that scene — those scenes are my favorite. I think it would have been really easy to make Queen Charlotte a one-dimensional character. She’s great in the balls. She’s great at her one-liners. She’s great at the gossip, all of that stuff, and that’s fabulous to play. But to be able to connect with her vulnerability and her private moments, for me as the actress, is really thrilling because it creates a three-dimensional character to play. It means that all the personal stuff, all the vulnerability can layer the kind of grandiose. When you see me at these lavish balls, I’m carrying all of that stuff with me — you don’t see it — but it’s good for me to hold that, to be able to create a rounded character.

Q: Generally speaking, how much does the cast know going in? Do you see all the scripts for all of the episodes? Did you know ahead of last season who Lady Whistledown was?

A: We didn’t know who Lady Whistledown was. There was a couple of endings that they shot. I think Nicola [Coughlan, whose character was revealed to be to be the gossip writer] knew. And then by the end, everybody kind of started finding out. We don’t get all of the scripts straight away. Some people don’t like that — they like to kind of have the whole rounded character and the rounded journey. I don’t mind. I work very much on my instincts. I find it quite thrilling to find it out as it comes.