Bridgerton's Simone Ashley On Playing Kate Sharma & Representation In Period Dramas

The return of Bridgerton is the most anticipated Netflix launch of the year. Is Simone Ashley braced for how it will change her life? As Simone Ashley says, “Representation matters”. Having felt early in her career that she was being typecast for roles by the colour of her skin, Simone never imagined she’d end up starring in a smash hit period drama because she’d never seen anyone in one who looked like her. “I didn’t really watch period dramas much because I felt like I couldn’t relate to them, maybe because I couldn’t see myself within one,” she admits when we meet. “And then,” she adds with a grin, “Bridgerton came along.” Filming closely with Jonathan ‘Johnny’ Bailey, who plays the philandering viscount Anthony Bridgerton, the actor welcomed her onset by leaving flowers in her trailer, a sweet gesture she reciprocated. “I would always leave him his favourite snacks in his trailer. We had a very unspoken rhythm going on in that sense, leaving gifts in each other’s trailers.”