The original series took it as understood that there was complete diversity, and everybody was fine with that. And I love the way that this series opens up that conversation. And that scene that you have with the Queen is one of my favorites. Tell me what making that issue explicit does for this series.
ARSEMA THOMAS: I think it grounds it in the current reality that we’re in. There is something that this is maybe pessimistic, but, undeserving about having a utopic society like Bridgerton, which is diverse without an explanation for how to get there. And I think there’s something so aspirational about this show because it shows that it’s something that you don’t just get handed. You have to fight for it. And a lot of those times, it’s women who are fighting for it, and they never get that recognition.
There is something in our series that is eerily similar to so many moments of history, and there’s something beautiful about telling a story that’s at the tipping point of change. This is a point where it could either go back to the way it was, and we continue the cycle again and again, or we go over the hump and change it. And to see what it looks like on the other side of that hump, I think, is what this show does. I think it makes it impactful. It colors “Bridgerton” in a whole different way. This show essentially gives you three seasons of “Bridgerton.”
Charlotte, Agatha, and George all struggle in lives that appear to have great power but, in reality, are very restricted.
ARSEMA THOMAS: All three of our characters really start out the same way, which is extremely, extremely imprisoned in whatever lifestyle that they did not choose. And then options start to appear that never were there. Possibility starts to become a very real thing.
Before that, the fact that Agatha is complacent is not because she hates herself or does not care; it’s because she has never thought there was another option ever. From three years old, being groomed for a husband, it’s essentially brainwashing. And then, the moment she gets the title of Lady, you start to see the gears. The rust is brushing off, they start to turn.
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