Queen bee! Bridgerton star Golda Rosheuvel is doing way more than overseeing the Ton. A Black, gay actress herself, she’s setting the stage for a generation to come and the significance is not lost on her.
Rosheuvel, 51, opened up to the New York Post‘s Page Six about being an out woman of color on a major series.
“There’s not a lot of us around who are gay, female, Black and I’m very privileged and blessed to be one of them,” she shared. “I’m not saying that I speak for a community, I’m a small voice in that community, but I think each of us who has a small voice creates something big and something wonderful for the next generation to see themselves and be proud of.”
The British actress added: “I’m very proud of who I am.”
During her Page Six interview, Rosheuvel touted Bridgerton‘s diversity, as her costars have in the past, noting that there aren’t a lot of Black stars leading period dramas. At least, there weren’t before the Netflix series’ December 2020 debut.
“For a long time now, stories had been told by the privileged,” she explained. “And I think it’s time that the door has opened and the time is now that the door is being opened by people of color, Black and brown people.”
Rosheuvel thanked Black producers like Shonda Rhimes and Tyler Perry for creating the opportunities. She also noted how special it is to her to not only appear on the show but to play the queen: “Then to be able to create the space where you can have a Black queen in the highest watched period drama on Netflix, you can have that to be able to break down the boundaries to make the space for Black and brown people to be in a lavish, sexy, scandalous, beautiful representation of life. The journey is not over but it’s definitely going in the right direction.”
There was, however, one downside to playing Bridgerton’s matriarch: “I was sick of eating the bonbons,” the Lady Macbeth star joked.
Rosheuvel isn’t the first Bridgerton star to celebrate the show’s diverse cast. In January, Nicola Coughlan clapped back at critics after Netflix Queue revealed that the show was the streaming service’s fifth most popular original release at the time. (It’s since been named the No. 1 most popular release, reaching more than 83 million homes.).
“You know the way some people were like ‘Diversity in period drama doesn’t work‘…..63 million households thought it did tho so,” she wrote.
The Derry Girls actress, 34, then tweeted: “Remember when people were trying to downvote the show on IMDB cos it was so diverse? You can’t downvote us being Netflix fifth-biggest original release ever.” She added a gif that read, “Sorry bout it.”
Netflix has renewed Bridgerton for a second season. The second series will focus on Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey) but is slated to bring back the same cast.
