India Amarteifio, Corey Mylchreest have an epic romance in Queen Charlotte
MANILA, Philippines — The Bridgerton universe expands with Queen Charlotte, which explores the love story of the young Charlotte and young King George. Bringing the epic romance to life in the spin-off of Netflix’s megahit period drama are English actors India Amarteifio (Netflix’s Sex Education) and Corey Mylchreest (Netflix’s The Sandman).
Said showrunner and creator Shonda Rhimes in the production notes: “I’m really excited for fans to see Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, as we’re calling it because it is part of the Bridgerton universe, but also because it’s a completely new world. We’re going back in time to a very different era of costumes, customs, the way things were done. And we’re going back to the beginning of how the society that we know of in Bridgerton started.”
India and Corey also shared how audiences will be introduced to their characters. “We meet Charlotte when she has just been sold off, basically, to marry the future King of England. It’s an arrangement set up by her brother to create better trade between Germany, Charlotte’s home, and England, so she’s pretty upset. She’s in a state of complete disbelief, and her trust in her family has gone, because she has always wanted to marry for love — at least that’s how I’ve approached her,” said India. “She wanted to marry for love, she’s really truthful, and so she’s very frustrated at the beginning, very upset, very angry, very lost, very young and very naive. And then it gets even more complicated.”
Corey, who plays the “handsome, charismatic and a bit of a mystery” King George, said: “We first meet George in the garden outside of where he’s getting married, and he is approaching Charlotte, who is at that point trying to run away. And at this point we do not know that George is George… we meet him, in a way, as an outsider. And we see that there’s this person who’s actually quite capable socially, and who is empathetic.
“George immediately empathizes with Charlotte’s situation… and yet is also charismatic enough to calm her down and to get her to want — of her own will — to come back in and get married to a man that she’s just met. I think the first impression of George is that he’s a confident guy, which isn’t necessarily the case.”
Going into how the love story started and progressed got Rhimes excited in doing the spinoff. “I absolutely loved delving into the romance between Charlotte and King George. It was really fascinating. And I really wanted to be able to show people what that kind of love is like, even though they already know how it ends up. I thought that was a real challenge.”
Meanwhile, The Philippine STAR got to know the two lead stars more ahead of the series premiere on May 4. Below are excerpts from the virtual interview.
On playing Queen Charlotte (played by Golda Rosheuvel in Bridgerton):
India: “I had initial discussions with Golda… She is a lovely woman. She further showed her lovely nature by allowing me to take this role on as one of my own, which was a bit scary but feels now like an absolute blessing to kind of be able to bring something that I enjoy doing so much. I’ve put so much love and attention into the spotlight, so to say, and to do her justice and do her proud, it’s not a goal, but it always was in the back of my mind that I hoped that she’d feel pleased with my performance.
“But yeah, there was lots of talk at the beginning whether how much the team wanted me to emulate her performance and then we kind of all settled on me not doing it at all. Anything that kind of came out that people have drawn comparisons to has been probably just my natural understanding of Charlotte and Golda’s understanding of Charlotte and then that informed the character and that happens to be shown in both of our portrayals. But I feel very honored that people seem to think that I am acting any way kind of like her because I think she’s great.”
On humanizing King George:
Corey: “I can’t stress enough how in 2015, there were 20,000 pages of George’s private journals and letters, some of them to Charlotte, some families and doctors that were released by the Royal Archives. And just reading some biographies that have been written recently, namely one by Andrew Robertson, the man is amazing. And he’s so much more than a madman or a colonizer and, and he tried his whole life to do right by himself, by his family, by his people. He really wanted to do the best for everyone involved and he wasn’t the most intelligent person but he was really dedicated to trying and I have such a deep love for him.”
On playing historical figures:
India: “I think we both were told that Queen Charlotte was never going to be a documentary or a historical retelling. It took two characters who once existed in history, King George III and Queen Charlotte, two important figures in the British Monarcy’s history, then kind of ‘Bridge-fying’ these two characters and creating a work of fantasy.
“We both did our own research respectively into the historical facts. But we kind of had to completely forget about that when we stepped onto set and read the scripts because it’s fantasy. It’s a story. So there are elements and we play on that a little bit or Shonda plays on that a little bit, but a lot of it is still in the Bridgerton sphere. It was more for us as actors to just understand who we were playing. We found out more about our characters through finding and developing the script.”
On working with each other:
Corey: “I would describe India as a co-star the same way that I would describe her as a person and as an actor. I would describe you as very passionate, incredibly generous, open-minded, brave and kind. You have an incredible — that I don’t even know if you’re aware of how incredible it is — your gut intelligence, your first instinct.
“And these are all things that are brilliant and they make me look so much better. Because I think, when you’re acting like this for so long with someone, whatever the other person is doing, all you have to do is listen, really! And so like India is taking care of my performance daily. So yeah, I have the world to thank you and for the guys up top for making us a team.”
India: “Vice versa. Cory is an absolute — just everything. Everything he said about me, I would throw back to him. But I just feel very lucky that we took this on together because it is a real team effort. It’s called Queen Charlotte but (it’s about) us together as a team… So much of this job is both of us. Like I couldn’t have done it without Corey and some of our, you know, execs and our director and everyone but it’s a real team effort.
“And, again, just incredibly lucky that the person who was cast was Corey, not only for his dedication to the job, but just for being such a lovely person to be around, which really helps I think. Just to have someone as a soundboard and someone that you can be open and vulnerable with, it’s everything. So, thank you (Corey) very much.”
On Bridgerton universe as a global phenom:
Corey: “I think Bridgerton is just amazing and definitely is a global whopper. But then I think what’s good about this show is that it goes slightly deeper into character study. There’s more focus on the human connection. And so yeah, the human heart is the target. The show is the bow and we are the arrows.”
India: “I would also say yes, for lots of reasons. You know, it’s the first time a lot of people from different backgrounds have seen themselves represented in such a classy way, and also in a genre where… I’ve never seen them represented in that way. Or if they were, they were not in positions of power or of great status.
“So, I think the show means a lot to a lot of people. And it’s not just, as a lot of people say, a kind of a guilty pleasure. It carries a lot of importance. I feel that, not responsibility, but an almost responsibility of being at the forefront of that. I think that’s really exciting and great that we can be part of that change.”
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