Golda Rosheuvel feels the heavy weight of responsibility – and wigs – in Bridgerton prequel
Long seen as the poor cousin of the sequel and lagging far behind the beloved original series, prequels are now reigning supreme with hugely popular Bridgerton joining the trend.
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From House of the Dragon and the final season of Better Call Saul, to not one, but two Yellowstone origin series, there’s no doubt prequels are reigning supreme.
While once considered the poorer cousin of the sequel, lagging far behind the beloved original series and subsequent, and often celebrated, follow ups, they have come into their own in recent years.
Better Call Saul – which rewound from where Breaking Bad began – is the undisputed champion. House of the Dragon, seen on Binge in Australia, exceeded all expectations, drawing an almost Game of Thrones-sized audience, and was possibly the tonic dedicated fans needed for the original’s rushed – and almost universally loathed – ending.
David Knox, of blog TV Tonight, say networks get giddy with the idea of prequels, sequels, revivals and reboots for one reason: familiarity.
“Nobody ever greenlights a prequel to a flop, so by definition you’re already springboarding off successful material, and therefore a fanbase who will help a first season pivot to a new audience,” he says.
“But there’s a lot to live up to, and fans can be hard to please.”
The hugely popular Bridgerton-verse has joined the trend and added another chapter to its Regency-era drama with Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, dropping on Netflix this week. And with uber TV producer and queen of the spin-off Shonda Rhimes – of Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice and Station 19 – at the helm, fans knew they were in safe hands.
Rhimes was a huge fan of Queen Charlotte from the beginning. But what pushed her to write this prequel was a call from Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos.
“He said ‘My mother-in-law is obsessed with Queen Charlotte. Do you want to do a Queen Charlotte story?’,” she recalls.
“And I immediately said yes. Not just because it was Ted, but because I loved the idea.”
Set 40 years before the world of Bridgerton, it’s the story of young Queen Charlotte (India Amarteifio) whose marriage to King George of England (Corey Mylchreest) transforms high society, sparking an epic love match and the ’Ton. It switches between eras with storylines also set in the present Bridgerton timeline and there’s familiar faces with Golda Rosheuvel as grown-up Queen Charlotte, Adjoa Andoh as Lady Danbury and Ruth Gemmell as Lady Violet Bridgerton. It is truly magnificent – the sumptuous sets and costumes return, along with engaging storylines, laced with comedy. But it’s more than superficially beautiful – there’s important themes of mental health and race.
“It’s really important to discuss all of those topics, and through the safety of a period drama and the safety of storytelling,” Rosheuvel shares, as we chat over Zoom from London at the beginning of a hectic day of publicity.
“You know that kind of storytelling can reach far and wide and not be threatening.
“I always think of it as like when you’re a child and your mother reads stories to you, it’s that same connection to the wider world of these much heavier subjects.”
The UK actress further opened up on how it feels to reimagine British and Black history through her character.
“I think for me to pave the way for positive representation, for inclusion, all that stuff through a historical medium, you know, I think that’s a really interesting, fascinating way of moving forward, moving the conversation forward,” she shares.
“And especially in the world that we are in now, to celebrate Black history is really, really important, and through a female protagonist, female historical character.
“I think it is really cool and beautiful and right on.”
Rhimes hastened to clarify it’s not a history lesson.
“We’re very clear about this world and about Queen Charlotte, who is a real historical figure … but this is fiction inspired by fact,” she says.
“It’s very important to me people understand that – because I’m telling the story of Queen Charlotte of Bridgerton, not of Queen Charlotte of England.
“It’s not that world. You really want to make a distinction so that you can tell the story as
freely as you need to tell it.”
The weight of portraying the lonely monarch took its toll quite literally, and physically too, on Rosheuvel. Crew members made the 53-year-old a neck brace that she had to wear on numerous occasions, with production breaking the record for the heaviest wig.
“There are two wigs, actually – one in the opera (scene) that is the tallest thing I’ve ever worn in my life,” she says, with a laugh. “And then there’s the wig I wear when I’m talking to my (on-screen) children and they’re telling me what a terrible mother I am.
“So, I think maybe that was art imitating life. I was in so much pain and yet, my children were telling me what a terrible mother I was.”
Viewers also get to watch the evolution of that fashion.
“The looks are a little bit different, aren’t they? She’s a little more slender here, whereas I have gone out a little bit more,” Rosheuvel says. “I can’t wait to watch the show for that kind of journey. It will be really fascinating because you only get glimpses of it during filming.
“India will do a scene in the morning, and I’ll do a scene in the afternoon, and we’ll pass each other, and I’ll be like, “Oh, nice wig, girl!”
The irony’s not lost on Rosheuvel that her character is the favourite of author Julia Quinn, who wrote the books on which the Netflix series are based. You see Queen Charlotte isn’t actually in Quinn’s books. And now she has her own show.
“Yeah, I think it’s the luck of the draw, isn’t it?,” Rosheuvel, muses with a wide grin.
“You want the work to be celebrated and the fans to love it and the world to kind of embrace it. But then, you know, for Shonda Rhimes and Netflix to actually do a deeper dive into this character and to keep her in the same world as Bridgerton is a genius move.
“And it’s all under the umbrella of one big, happy family.”
Queen Charlotte certainly had one big family – bearing 15 children with King George IV, But it wasn’t always a happy one. Her husband struggling with crippling mental health issues, becomes a recluse and it was tenuous relationship with her entitled adult children. The joy is watching her silence them with a single, imperious look.
How’s Rosheuvel’s real-life withering look?
“Look, she is definitely the mistress of that – but I don’t think I can,” she confesses.
“It’s so bizarre when I watch myself. I actually don’t know who that person even is.
“It’s very weird relationship because I’m so different. Well, I think I am, other people might go ‘wellllllll’. But yeah, I feel as though I’m completely different to her.”
Long may her Queen – and prequels – reign.
Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, streaming, Netflix
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