TV & Movies
How Queen Charlotte’s India Amarteifio Prepared Her Mom For Her “Steamy” Scenes
It was a “bonding experience like no other.”
As Bridgerton fans gear up for its prequel series, Queen Charlotte, star India Amarteifio is getting ready in her own way. On top of the usual stuff, like doing press to promote her show, there’s something new for the 21-year-old actor: preparing her family members for her “steamy scenes.” While appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live on April 25, she explained that she had to “jump in at the deep end” and show her mom the racy parts.
The upcoming series picks up decades before Bridgerton and shows the love story of Queen Charlotte and King George III. Amarteifio plays the younger version of the queen portrayed by Golda Rosheuvel in both series, while her husband-to-be is Corey Mylchreest’s young George. Their intimate scenes came up when Kimmel showed Amarteifio one of her show’s billboards on display above a liquor store and she joked that her family members might need to stop by before watching certain parts that are “a bit racy, a bit… not for the eyes.”
Watching those sections with her mom was “bizarre,” she admitted, but she added that “it’s really nice to, like, have people that you know watch something and feel proud.” She chose to rip off the bandage with her mother before the show’s Netflix debut. “I just felt like I had to jump in at the deep and just show her all the steamy scenes, get it out of the way, and then we can just, you know, move past it,” Amarteifio explained, calling it “a bonding experience like no other.”
Luckily, there doesn’t seem to be lingering awkwardness between mother and daughter. When Kimmel asked her mom, who was in the audience, what she thought, she said that she “knew what to expect” and “switched off from, ‘OK, this is my daughter.’” The proud parent made sure to tell the audience (not once but twice) that Queen Charlotte is “fabulous.”
While Amarteifio does hope other family members will watch the show, she wants her grandparents to skip specific parts. The Midwich Cuckoos vet has thought about making a spreadsheet to help relatives avoid them. She’d include “each point where they need to stop and then continue,” she said. She might not have to do the work there, as there are plenty of fans and publications (ahem, like this one) that have been proactive enough in the past to timestamp Bridgerton’s steamy scenes for anyone who wants to skip them — or skip ahead to them.
While the Bridgerton universe’s onscreen intimacy isn’t necessarily family-friendly for its stars, the scenes, along with dance sequences, are “the heart of the show,” according to Jonathan Bailey (Anthony Bridgerton). He told Radio Times in March 2022 that they can be surprisingly “silly” and “hilarious” to film at times. His co-star (and intimate scene partner) Simone Ashley, who plays Kate Sharma, added in her own interview with the magazine that they film “in a very safe environment” and she knew she could speak up if anything made her uncomfortable.
Queen Charlotte will follow in Bridgerton’s footsteps by bringing its spiciness to Netflix on May 4.
