Charithra Chandran was helping her mother with the gardening on their Oxfordshire allotment last spring when the call came through, inviting her to test shoot with Jonathan Bailey (aka Bridgerton's resident lothario Viscount Anthony).
"Mum was saying, 'Let’s distract you, keep you busy.' We were cutting tubing for her polytunnel!" Chandran recalls, laughing.
It was a pinch-me moment for the 25-year-old, who went on to win the role of Edwina Sharma, one of the bright young lovers joining the new season of Netflix’s extravagantly costumed, sex-saturated Regency drama, which returns to our screens this week.
Acting was never supposed to be Chandran’s career plan. She had been dabbling in it post-university, "getting the ants out of my pants for this drama thing, before I settled down and worked 70 hours a week".
Having just graduated the previous year from New College, Oxford, she was on the cusp of starting a highly sought-after job at the prestigious Boston Consulting Group. But then the pandemic struck, the start date of her BCG job got deferred, and in a carpe diem moment, she started cold-emailing agents, "with these kind of amateur headshots".
Swiftly signed, she soon landed another plum role that of Sabina Pleasance in the second season of Amazon's spy series Alex Rider, which came out in December and confesses to becoming quite stressed, anxious about clashes with the potential Bridgerton gig on the horizon. "My agent was like, 'Don't worry about that. You just audition.'"
And thank heavens she did. Edwina Sharma, the (apparently) doe-eyed debutante, chaperoned around Bridgerton's marriage market by her sharp-tongued elder sister Kate, is surely one of the roles of a lifetime.
Today, nestled on a sofa in the west London house where our shoot has just wrapped, Chandran is slight and straight-backed with huge, expressive eyes. She may be new to the rituals of celebrity, but she is a thoughtful interviewee, eager to analyse the significance of the Bridgerton phenomenon (it was streamed by 82 million households globally in the month after its release).
The ‘colour-conscious’ casting of the steamy Georgian drama created by Shonda Rhimes’s powerhouse studio Shondaland in which several of the key characters are played by non-white actors, has been key to the series’ success, and Chandran, the daughter of Indian doctors, is full of praise.
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Advertise with NZME."I think that Bridgerton has done for TV what Hamilton did for theatre," she says. 'It encouraged a totally different audience to watch period drama and romances. And it made us feel seen on screen.' Post-Bridgerton, she adds, "it would be very hard to have a period drama now that isn't diverse.
"I’ve always wondered how we can accept aliens and superheroes, but, you know, it’s a struggle to accept a brown or black princess? Is that where you draw the line? Maybe a mermaid is okay," she eye-rolls. "So I think as a society, we’ve just become more creative."
Based on a series of novels by American historical-romance writer Julia Quinn, the first season of the drama focused on the love affair between Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor) and the Duke of Hastings (Rege-Jean Page, who alas will not be returning).
In season two, based on Quinn's second novel of the Bridgerton series, The Viscount Who Loved Me, Chandran's character Edwina and her sister Kate (played by another Bridgerton newcomer, Sex Education star Simone Ashley) have been given the new surname Sharma, as opposed to Sheffield in the book, and a backstory deemed authentic to their characters' Indian heritage.
Chandran says she was encouraged to give her input into her storyline. "The writers were really open to having conversations. We had all their numbers and they’d just be like, 'I’m in Texas, it’s cool, this is the time difference, just call…' I really made myself clear about what I wanted for this young woman. That was kind of scary because I was so new to the business, but I knew what I wanted.
"As a dark-skinned Indian girl, I may never get this platform again. So I needed to utilise it in a positive way,’ she says. ‘I’m really passionate about dark-skinned representation. And to see two dark-skinned South Asian ladies in the biggest show in the world is iconic."
Born in Perth, Scotland, to Indian parents who left their native country in the early 90s to pursue their medical training, Chandran was still a young child when her parents’ marriage broke down and she and her father moved back to India, where she lived with her grandparents in Tamil Nadu.
She was four when she returned to the UK, first attending school in Liverpool before becoming a boarder at Moreton Hall Prep School in Suffolk when she was six. "I loved it. I was an only child, so having lots of other people to play with was really fun."
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Advertise with NZME.Then, when she was 11, her mother moved to Oxford, and Chandran moved with her; since then, her family life has been based in the city, with Chandran also attending university there.
She paints a happy picture of her student days she studied PPE (philosophy, politics and economics) and while she acknowledges that Oxford continues to be a seat of privilege that "can be extremely alienating for people that aren’t from that kind of background", she credits her university experience with broadening her horizons.
"Growing up, I think I was in a bit of a bubble because I was so ambitious and focused… Oxford opened my eyes politically, socially, culturally and just made me a better person."
She is also grateful to the Oxford drama scene for reigniting her love of performing. She played Medea in a university production, which was "probably my best experience at Oxford… if I hadn’t gone there, perhaps I wouldn’t be where I am today".
Nevertheless, her Indian heritage remains core to her identity. "I love India so much," she says, explaining that before the pandemic she would travel there at least three times a year.
She describes her background as traditional, in that she was raised with "really strong family values. What I really love about Indian culture is this idea of obligation and duty. I don’t think it’s as common in the West I feel a responsibility for my family as much as every other individual [in my family] feels a responsibility to me. Yes, it’s more work but it also provides me with security. I know that I will never be destitute, I know that I’ll never be alone because my family will always be there to support me as much as I’m there for them."
So how did her family feel about swapping her future at the blue-chip Boston Consulting Group for the altogether more bohemian life of a thespian? She grimaces.
"In our family we don’t have anyone in this field. And they worked bloody hard to make a life for themselves as immigrants in this country and all they want for their daughter is stability. There are so many wonderful things about this career, but stability is not one of them. So they were really scared." She pauses. "They are happy that I’m happy, but I can’t say that they’re happy that I chose this path to begin with."
One thing upon which Chandran and her mum do agree is a shared appreciation of the Regency romance. "My mum and I will literally watch Colin Firth in Pride and Prejudice, like, once every two months. We are obsessed with it."
Chandran is an ardent Austen fan and although she did not know Julia Quinn's writing before it was adapted for TV, she does see a thread running from Austen to Bridgerton's phenomenal success: "[Austen] is the embodiment of the female gaze, which is what this show is all about. You rarely see that in the media, giving power to women and what they want."
I wonder if it was daunting to join such an established cast, not to mention the pressure of carrying the narrative arc of the second season (as Dynevor and Page did in the first). Did the veteran cast members have any tips to share?
"Golda [Rosheuvel, aka Queen Charlotte] always told me: just know your lines. What she meant was to know the whole scene from front to back and then you can just play, you can forget them."
She also credits Jonathan Bailey with being particularly supportive, encouraging her to trust her instincts and not get wrong-footed by the epic sets and production. "He had so much time for me… I love that guy so much… He’s basically everyone’s favourite."
Having seen the first two episodes of Bridgerton season two, it was a treat to watch the chemistry between Viscount Bridgerton and the Sharma sisters. Chandran says she adored working with Simone Ashley, who plays her fierce and forthright elder sister. Did she envy Kate's feistiness?
"I’m probably naturally more like Kate than I am Edwina. But I think there is something really profound about presenting different types of strength. I think it’s a real injustice in our society to undervalue certain qualities like kindness, empathy and optimism. And, actually, I think it takes bloody courage to be optimistic," says Chandran emphatically.
She’s also at pains to stress that the bond between the sisters is one of the most powerful dynamics in the show. "They are soulmates. You know, we focus on romantic love so much, but actually these two women, there’s no one more important to them. And I think Simone and I worked really hard to bring that to the screen."
Talk turns to the global fame that is inevitably coming her way. "I think my strategy is denial. I genuinely don’t think I will be recognised. I think you kind of have to be a freak to think you will," she says.
Nevertheless she is passionate about using her visibility to "fight and push back on colourism", which she says she has been aware of "since I was little". "I remember strangers saying, 'You would be pretty if you were light-skinned like your grandmother,' and like, trying to blame my granddad for giving me my skin colour."
There have been other incidents, too. At school, she remembers a careers evening: "There was this parent who was a barrister and they were talking to me and another girl and they refused to even look me in the eye." Although she eventually decided that law was not the path for her, she says she has experienced similar attitudes in regards to her current career.
"People assume my success is due to a diversity quota. I’ve even had friends say to me, 'Oh you got that because you’re brown,' and that really hurts,’ she admits. ‘What’s really scary is that you can start believing it and thinking, “The only reason I got cast as Edwina is because they were looking for an Indian family.'”
Colourism is, she says, pervasive in the entertainment industry. "Being a person of colour, we’re not unitary, we’re not one thing. There are so many different communities within that umbrella term. We should be more specific about making sure we’re representing different groups of people."
And she makes the point that what happens in front of the camera is only the half of the story. "I would love to see more crew who are black and brown. I think that’s really important. We should be careful about just sort of window dressing."
Our time together is nearly over and we have yet to talk about love, which for the woman about to star in the romance series of the year is surely remiss.
Is she in a relationship? "No! I’m single. There are so many reasons why I’m single," she sighs. "I think Covid, honestly, especially with this job you have to be really careful. And I’m a workaholic and this is the time in my life where work unapologetically comes first. I’m not willing to prioritise anything else at the moment."
So what comes next, professionally at least? Chandran gives a wry half smile. She is well aware that making her debut as an unknown in such a high-profile show is no ordinary state of affairs and there really is no route map from here. "Even if Bridgerton is my peak, what a beautiful peak. If this is the best thing I do? Great. It's an amazing project."
Something tells me, the consultancy industry will have to wait.
Bridgerton returns to Netflix on Friday March 25.
The Daily Telegraph
