How Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story's India Amarteifio Became Young Queen Charlotte

They actually replicated Golda's freckles

and moles on my face.

It completely took me away from myself,

and I physically embodied someone else.

Hey, I'm India Amarteifio,

and this is how I became young Queen Charlotte

in Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story.

[mellow music]

My first audition was a scene between Daphne and Rege.

Eight balls.

No.

Eight balls.

You do want our plan to succeed, do you not?

All I was thinking was don't try and copy Phoebe.

Just do something different.

I sent a tape, which is also for an actor,

quite scary because you

want to meet the people that you're trying to impress.

And then I did a chemistry read with Corey

and with our Arsema and that was in person.

I didn't wanna mimic anything that Golda had done.

I didn't want to copy anything

or emulate any of her performance.

Please accept my apology.

If I had known that you were you.

You would've have what?

Not told me that you were trying to escape?

Well, yes I mean.

I do apologize, your Majesty.

It's a lot of text.

[mellow music]

What's great about Bridgerton is that

it's not a historically accurate show.

Shonda has never said that it's based on facts.

It is based off of real people,

but it's a fantasy world.

There was a certain level of research which was imperative.

It's reading books, watching films, visiting Kew Gardens,

which is where George and Charlotte

spent most of their time with their 15 kids.

We had a historical advisor called Hannah Grieg

and she kind of gave us very basic etiquette lessons.

But it was all fun.

It was like going back to school,

but the fun elements,

I felt like a naughty school kid sitting there

like trying to make friends with my new castmates.

Shonda wanted the performances to be a bit like Bridgerton.

It's very natural.

You know, our, our posture changes

because we're in real corsets, but our mannerisms and

and how we speak obviously is a little bit more heightened

but there's no books on your head or walking

and marching and you have to put your feet together

and it's all very relaxed.

The prep for that was so much fun

and I think everyone that's been part

of Bridgerton would say the same.

Like, I've, I've listened to

Charithra's Teen Vogue interview.

Hi, if you're seeing this I really admire you, hi.

She said that Jack Murphy, who's also our choreographer

was just super helpful not just as a,

as a choreographer but to create dialogue,

which the dance scenes, that's all they are.

It's a conversation without words.

And as long as you remembered that,

it didn't really matter what you were doing

with your body as long as you were trying to

make the other person, the other character

the other act and feel something, that's all you had to do.

So yeah, I'm super grateful for Jack Murphy.

Thank you, muah.

And then also with the camera

we had an amazing, super talented, steady op called Leo.

Tom, our director, would say

alright now the three of you are dancing.

Cause it was like me, Corey, and Leo.

He is just picking up

on like the tiny intricate details that

me and Corey putting in like a hand touch

or a bit of eye contact

or if I'm looking someone up and down, like he's just there

and you really feel like you're collaborating as, as a

as a trio to create this beautiful scene.

Sometimes we'd, we'd dance to classical music

sometimes we'd dance to pop versions

or like reinvented pop culture songs

which obviously is really famous in Bridgerton.

The added pressure was the dress

and the hair and the jewels and the shoes

which the first time you do it is

so moving and amazing, but it's a lot, heavy.

These dresses are like weighted plates.

Whale bone, brother, the bones of whales, whales died

so I could look like this.

The storytelling throughout everything that you see

from every detail, from every color choice

from every pattern choice, from every material choice.

And I was given the choice, which is really rare.

I think my first kind of fitting

was one of my wedding dresses

or it was a big dress is what I remember.

And Lynn had put it on and they hadn't had any

of my measurements and it was almost perfect

and I could just see her welling up.

It just made me realize how special this project was

because I realized how much thought she had put into it

which is ridiculous to say

but she just cares so much and it made me care so much.

Everything you see is real as well.

By the way, I'm in a corset that whole time.

I'm in the real jewels, the hair is heavy, is real.

Which is so important for character

because you are kind of constricted

from the waist up and then

from the waist down you've got weight pulling you down.

But yeah, it was great for my posture.

It was great for the character because that's how

they held themselves.

But it definitely takes a while to

get used to at the beginning.

But it's like anything, it's like learning to ride a bike.

Your body adapts and you get through it.

I'd start with hair and makeup.

I'd probably be in the chair for about an hour,

get into my costume afterwards.

So it was a gradual kind of journey in the morning to

to get to her, which is nice because it allowed me to

reawaken some of her thoughts and her emotions

and I could see it all happening in front of me.

And they actually replicated Golda's freckles and moles

on my face.

It completely took me away from myself and I physically

embodied someone else, which is so important

because I'm playing someone else.

I am a different person.

The second wedding dress means so much to me and

to Charlotte and hopefully to the audience because

you know, she was put into a, an English gown

and is already being made to conform

to British culture and to repress her

true identity.

A traditional English gown will not carry all of the fuss

and the frills that the European gown you currently have

on does, for instance.

Even her hair is, is made to look more controlled.

After meeting George, he's reminding her

that she has control and that she is powerful.

It's making a statement to say I'm here.

Accept me for who I am because

you're not gonna get anything else.

Like this texture of this hair is mine

it's beautiful, it's sophisticated, it's regal.

This dress is what I choose.

Take me as I am to be then loved unconditionally

for who she is and, and

for what she shows and what she believes in

is why I loved this project, because it's just beautiful

and is how I would want to be loved.

So yeah, it's very, very special.

[mellow music]

So intimacy scenes are terrifying.

You know, the, you are

you are having to be your most vulnerable self

and something that is very private

and very personal in front of a crew

but then also knowing that it's gonna be shown to

so many people.

The scariness was

was completely kind of, kind of melted away

as soon as I met Lizzy Talbert and Lucy Fennel

who are our intimacy coordinators, and they kind

of choreograph it and we choreograph it alongside them

and it is so militant and so regimented

and so choreographed that you know what you're doing.

We were just really supported and if you know there

were any points that we weren't comfortable

we could just say, I'm not doing this today.

Everything was considered, and it's not gratuitous.

It's therefore a reason we're telling a story.

It's like a dance, it's like a scene

it's like an eating scene.

It's like a walking, talking scene.

Tom Verica, director and producer,

and Shonda were very very clear from the beginning

that they did not want a caricature of Golda.

They didn't want me to emulate anything she did.

They didn't want me to attach any

of her mannerisms to my performance.

It was very much my own invention of Charlotte at 17,

which gives me the great honor of

of creating the foundation as to

how we know her in Bridgerton.

Golda is great.

Everyone that meets Golda just says how warm

and inviting she is.

Golda made me feel empowered and

and made me feel like I was capable of doing the job.

After meeting her, I was like, okay

she believes I can do it.

I, I believe so.

Typical day, I'd wake up

have my granola and oat milk or avocado and toast

which I lived off the show.

Jump into hair and makeup it was about an hour,

an hour and ten.

My hair would already be braided up, so it was just

putting the wig on and putting the accessories in.

The prosthetics on my, on my face.

And then Golda has a birthmark on her back

which she really wanted included it.

Had a tattoo of the birthmark put on my back as well.

Usually have another snack.

There's lots of eating that was done and lots

of snacking even in the corset.

Then we'd jump onto set.

We'd do a rehearsal of the scene, like we'd go

through the scene, we'd ask him questions

we'd shoot the scene, then we'd do it again

shoot another scene, have lunch,

muck about, and then I might switch into different costume,

different hair look.

Then we'd have dinner, and then usually we'd go back

to the hotel and eat again.

And then if we'd had a big scene in the day,

we'd binge watch The Office in the evening

or we'd go for a walk.

We'd just try and kind of

get rid of the, the emotions that we'd

we'd held onto that day.

Because sometimes, you know, you are

you are in a scene and it's, you know

you are having to become really agitated with someone

or you are really emotional and you've gotta connect.

You've gotta find something, you know, to,

to get you there.

And sometimes you have to detach and then we do

some script work in the in the evening

and just kind of highlight things

and annotate lines for the next morning and make

sure that we know what we're talking about and saying

and understanding and do it all again.

[mellow music]

Charlotte is so inquisitive and is very unapologetic.

You know, sometimes we, we get nervous

or we don't want to appear naive

but I think I am now more willing to ask questions

and to question other people's choices

and to question my own choices

because she is always rooting for the truth.

She's always wanting to know

why do I have to marry this guy?

Why do I have to eat this food?

Why does he wanna spend time with me?

And now I'm like, yeah

why don't these people wanna call me back?

You know, like, come on, I'm, I'm kind of cool.

She made me understand the human brain a little bit more

and that asking questions is not a sign of weakness.

It's, it's a sign of strength and power.