So, you got goosebumps while watching Reynolds and Brimsley dancing in the shadows or found your heart becoming a mess at that scene where George and Charlottes crawl under the bed in the season finale. You are not alone. You might be glad to know that the cast of Netflix’s Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story felt the same way.
Queen Charlotte is not a history lesson, it is a celebration of the eternal love that blossomed between the reel-life King George III and Queen Charlotte Shonda Rhimes created for Bridgerton, based on the actual historic figures.
Netflix recently released a video where the cast of Queen Charlotte reacts to the season finale. India Amarteifio (young Queen Charlotte), Corey Mylchreest (young King George), Arsema Thomas (young Lady Danbury), Freddie Dennis (Reynolds), Golda Rosheuvel (Queen Charlotte) and Sam Clemmett (young Brimsley) share their thoughts. They delve into the profound impact of the concluding moments and discuss their favourite behind-the-scenes experiences, providing insights into the emotional depth of the show’s culmination and their personal connections to it.
Lady Danbury’s rejection
Arsema Thomas, who plays the younger version of the formidable Lady Danbury, found her rejection from Lord Ledger frustrating, “I’m still angry. I’m still pissed.” But she applauded Agatha’s character because this moment shows her grit, “..she handles it well.”
While Lady Danbury becomes the lioness we get to meet in Bridgerton through the many trials she faced in her life, in a sea full of romance, she misses out on true companionship. Perhaps that is why she becomes so unbothered by the rules of polite society and becomes such a force to be reckoned with.
Reynolds and Brimsley’s clandestine romance
While the main focus of the Tom Verica-directed series is the royal love affair, another tale of romance stole the hearts of fans. The king and queen’s respective footmen, Reynolds and Brimsley, were charting a grand love of their own, hidden from the world at large. Even though somehow racial segregation could be solved overnight, queer relationships could still only thrive by moonlight in the world of Queen Charlotte.
Freddie Dennis and Sam Clemmet shared their thoughts on that final dance the two share before the scene cuts to an adult Brimsley’s (Hugh Sachs) solitary figure serenading a long-gone Reynolds.
“This is an amazing moment because it’s one of the very few moments of joy for the two of them,” Dennis said, ”But even so, it’s still a secret. It’s so dangerous, but that shows how much they love each other.”
Clemmett added, “They are finding such joy in the danger, and they don’t care. It’s beautiful.”
However, before we start mourning Reynolds, there is something Shonda Rhimes told Shondaland, that you need to know, “Reynolds is not dead. There’s a lot more I could write about that.” For Rhimes Brimsely’s solo dance meant something else entirely, “the idea that service takes over. … When you see Brimsley alone, that’s what that’s supposed to convey.”
King George and Queen Charlotte’s complicated love
India Amarteifio, Corey Mylchreest, and Golda Rosheuvel each took turns speaking of that last scene where time blends together as younger and older versions of George and Charlotte find each other again under the bed. This scene is a throwback to a moment the two share early on in their marriage when George hides under his bed, in full royal regalia, after a massive panic attack engulfs him before a speech he was meant to make in parliament.
“There was something so powerful about wearing that, what should be such a sign of power, and crumpling under a bed, and the dichotomy between those two things.” Mylchreest added, “I remember looking down and feeling such shame. It’s a realisation that there is nothing to be done. I will be this. I am not enough.”
India added, “For Charlotte as well. She’s not seen him like this before. This is the first time she’s seen him [like this] and I think she’s really confused. You know, she’d steadied him before he’d gone, and she thought that, you know, she was what he needed. And actually, this is the moment the ball drops that it’s so much bigger than her. And it’s actually bigger than him, which is really sad because there’s nothing that either of them can really do.”
Rosheuvel aptly summarised, “It’s a complicated love story,” before regally reminding all and sundry that the show is currently streaming on Netflix.
