Golda Rosheuvel on ‘Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story’ series: ‘I left it up to Shonda Rhimes’
TheGrio caught up with the actress days before the highly anticipated prequel series finally landed on Netflix.
The “Bridgerton” world just got bigger! The first prequel show in the franchise, “Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story” is finally on the streaming service this week. TheGrio caught up with Queen Charlotte herself, Golda Rosheuvel, as she broke down saying yes to Shonda Rhimes’ idea for the series and how she embraced the opportunity to support India Amarteifio, the actress playing Young Charlotte in the series.
As theGrio previously reported, “Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story” is a prequel story to the main “Bridgerton” series. Centered around fan-favorite character Queen Charlotte (Rosheuvel), the six-episode show tells the tale of how the young queen fell in love with King George, thus “creating the world of the Ton inherited by the characters in ‘Bridgerton,'” per Netflix’s description.
For Rosheuvel, following Rhimes down this prequel journey was a no-brainer (while “Bridgerton” is a Shondaland show with Rhimes maintaining an executive producer credit, “Queen Charlotte” is the first show in the “Bridgerton” world that Rhimes serves as creator and writer).
“I left it up to Shonda Rhimes,” she told us. “We had the initial talk and that was incredible to find out that they were gonna do a prequel on this character.”
Lady Danbury (Adjoa Andoh) and Violet Bridgerton (Ruth Gemmell) also return for the series, which sheds light on the sisterhood found between the three women of the Ton. “We talked to [Shonda] about older women, and kind of portraying that side of it and the friendship and the sisterhood and really trying to navigate that in some way, as well as doing an origin story.
“I really feel that there is that sense of Charlotte as a mother,” she continued. “Charlotte as a wife that has had to deal with the longevity of a mental health issue with her husband that she dearly loves, and also a sisterhood in there and how important those women really are to her.”
Rosheuvel also spoke about making space for Amarteifio to tackle the role of Charlotte for herself. “That was really important to me, to support her in this role, but support her in a way where she could take the role and make it her own,” she explained.
“You know, you can’t impose stuff on Charlotte,” she quipped. “It doesn’t happen! She will not accept it, so to really support India in that way and to allow her to become Charlotte for herself was really, really important to encourage and support.”
“She does an amazing job,” she added. “I’m really proud of her. She’s amazing.”
All episodes of “Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story” are streaming now on Netflix.
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