“I never didn’t want to be an actress,” says Charithra Chandran, despite the fact that the now-25-year-old went to Oxford University and had a five-year plan to work in public policy and, as they say, do the sensible thing. “I just thought it was impossible. Sometimes you don’t allow yourself to dream of things you know are not going to happen.”
Even so, instead of traveling through Thailand or working a ski season in the Alps on her gap year, Chandran chased that dream and took up acting in earnest. Despite the stability and security — things she’d always been told were important in life — that may have come with a corporate job, Chandran soon found herself falling in love with and committing herself to performing. It paid off: Now Chandran is joining Shondaland’s Bridgerton as Edwina Sharma, who gets swept up in Anthony Bridgerton’s search for a wife in the second season of the hit Netflix show, which premieres on Friday, March 25.
Edwina’s journey in season two of Bridgerton as part of the Sharma family — along with her mother, Mary, and older sister, Kate — plays an integral role in Anthony’s ongoing attempts to define himself outside of the shadow of his dead father and the legacy and family responsibilities he left behind. But regardless of now being part of one of the most popular TV shows on the planet, Chandran can’t seem to let go of her practicality just yet.
“I always have that backup plan,” she says. “I have multiple contingency plans for almost every situation. It’s such a tricky one because I have so much impostor syndrome. I’m genuinely convinced that no one’s going to hire me ever again. But also, I feel scared a little bit because getting to actually be a professional actor, I can only liken it to finding your true love, if you believe in such a notion. I imagine that when you find your true love, you reflect on [your previous] relationships and go, ‘I never really loved [them].’ That’s kind of how I feel about acting, that I found that thing that I was always supposed to do. And now, if I were to go back to the corporate job, if I were to go to law school, whatever, before the acting career, I think I would have been happy in those parts. But now, I wouldn’t. Because I know that this is where I feel complete.”
Outside of her involvement with Anthony in season two, Edwina has her own arc of self-discovery. Chandran, for her part, gravitated to that side of Edwina’s character given that the two seem to share a penchant for constantly thinking about the future.
“I’m such a forward thinker,” offers Chandran. “I very rarely think about the past. It’s been a real challenge and kind of a pleasure to have to take it day by day [with Bridgerton].”
As her star rises and the anticipation for the new season revs up, we can imagine how difficult it’s been for her to take each new day as it comes. But we managed to slow Chandran down for a few minutes and ask her all about how she got here in the first place, incorporating Indian customs into the world of Bridgerton, and what it is she’s learned from playing Edwina Sharma.
VALENTINA VALENTINI: Can you tell us about how you got the role and what that process was like?
CHARITHRA CHANDRAN: I auditioned in November 2020, before the show even came out. My agent attached the season-one trailer link through YouTube and was like, “I think this is going to be huge. Watch the trailer; let me know what you think.” I’m a fan of period dramas anyway, so even if I wasn’t going to be in it, I knew I was going to choose to watch it. Originally, I auditioned for Kate, the older sister. I had a few auditions for that and decided it just didn’t work out. And that was fine. By then, I’d had another offer for a TV show. So, in the new year I was like, “Okay, one door closes; another opens. It just wasn’t meant to be. Oh, well.”
And then I started filming the other TV show. But when I first auditioned for Bridgerton, my mom had said — and she’s never said this before — “I think you’re going to get this. You’re going to be a part of this show.” It was just, like, thanks for being a supportive mom. But she kept saying it, even in the new year. I had to tell her it was over, done. And then in February, as I was in the makeup chair on the other job, I got a call from my agent telling me that they wanted to see me again for Bridgerton but as the youngest sister. I told him I wanted to think about it; I didn’t want to do it as a consolation prize because I wanted to be able to candidly feel passionate about the character rather than just desperately wanting to be on the show. Which I obviously did! So, I read the book again, and I heard what they had planned for Edwina, and I thought that, actually, this is a very important story to be told because so many young women across the world, particularly brown women, are in Edwina’s situation. And I thought that I could make a difference with this character and with this story line. So, I auditioned and got the part!
VV: Without giving too much away, let’s discuss Edwina’s massive arc this season. She has a lot of growth.
CC: Edwina’s is a coming-of-age story. She turns from this young girl into a confident young woman, and it’s about self-discovery and self-love and the bravery that those things require. Especially as women, we are expected to be so sacrificial, and Edwina is sacrificial for a lot of it. Women are often defined by their relationship to others, whether that’s a sister, daughter, mother, wife, whatever. And it’s like, no, we have value in and of ourselves.
VV: Coming from a big family with a lot of sisters, I know how fierce that love can be and how hard it can be to endure it too. There are other love stories going on this season, but there is the sisterly love story too. What is it like being half of this other love story?
CC: I don’t have sisters of my own, but I have plenty of cousins, and my family is very much a matriarchal one. So, the idea of these female and maternal relationships is very familiar, and inspiration was close by. For me, female relationships are the most important ones I have in my life. And any opportunity in TV or film that we can get to show more of those relationships — like, genuine portrayals of those relationships — is a good thing. This isn’t just fairy tales and roses and sunshine all the time. There’s always a foundation of love, but there are good moments and bad moments and problems that arise like in any loving relationship.
VV: There are some wonderful bits of Indian culture peppered throughout this season. How did showrunner Chris Van Dusen work to incorporate these elements into the season?
CC: I think it’s important to remember the specific mindset that the Sharmas have, which is that they’re immigrants — they are from a different culture and background from the rest of the ton. But they are very familiar with the ton. Their mum is English, and she’s taught them everything that she knows. Edwina in particular, it’s almost like she’s been training for the Olympics — she’s been breathing, eating, sleeping the ton and its customs. I love that the sisters hark back to their Indian culture in moments of jubilation and in moments of distress — in moments where they seek comfort or they want to rejoice is when you see them embracing the Indian elements.
VV: I’m specifically curious about their nicknames for each other. Where do those come from?
CC: Didi just means “older sister” in Hindi. Bon, I have no idea. I think it’s made up. I think maybe they meant it like French for “sweet”?
VV: Did you ever have conversations with Chris about cultural accuracy?
CC: I mean, there are things that I knew a lot more about, but it was not my place to say. Mostly because this is not a historically accurate show. I like to think of it as a fantasy. I think it’s a beautiful show. They’ve done a wonderful job.
I was born in the U.K. and moved back to India for a year or so with my dad at one point. I’m from Tamil Nadu, which is the southernmost state in India. We’re Dravidians, which is different from the Indo-Aryan peoples. Our language, Tamil, does not derive from Sanskrit, though it’s as old as Sanskrit. So, our culture and our history is very unique to our area, [where] you can see a lot of Tamil pride. It makes me so happy to see so many Tamils doing so well in this industry and in others — Aziz Ansari; Padma Lakshmi; Mindy Kaling; Maitreyi Ramakrishnan; the CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai; and maybe the most famous example, Kamala Harris.
VV: The creators of the show have always been very clear that they’re not trying to make a documentary. That being said, can you tell me about the Haldi ceremony that we get to see a glimpse of in the trailer?
CC: The Haldi is a ceremony that sometimes the bride and the groom participate in together, sometimes separately. Turmeric is used a lot to make golden milk and turmeric lattes — it has anti-inflammatory properties and is supposed to help boost your immune system. So, when they rub it on you, it’s supposed to protect you and help your physical health, but it’s also supposed to ward off evil spirits to prepare you for your wedding. There’s also a slightly more negative element to it, that it’s supposed to give you “glowing skin,” but actually the property is bleaching, so it’s to make skin lighter. But it’s a very common, popular tradition. My sister-in-law had a Haldi. It’s a staple part of Indian or Hindu weddings.
Filming that scene came out so beautifully. It’s one of my favorite scenes in the show. But it was so difficult to film because every take we had to stand there, arms outstretched, and get it scraped off like hummus. It was funny. But I was glad to have Simone [Ashley] and Shelley [Conn] with me.
VV: Now, how did you get on with pall-mall? Again, a scene we’re teased with in the trailer. Had you played that game before?
CC: Oh, my goodness, it was so hard! I grew up playing croquet, and at my boarding school we played cricket in the summer, and at my university, croquet is a staple, a tradition. So, I went into it thinking, “I’m going to be so good.” And I wasn’t at all! I was terrible, but I’m so competitive, so even though I was really bad, I just kept trying and trying. I think the frustration that Edwina feels, Charithra definitely felt too!
VV: Have you learned anything about yourself or the world at large from playing Edwina and being a part of this show?
CC: I have to be honest — initially, I think I sold Edwina short in that I didn’t fully appreciate her strength and her character. By the end, I grew to admire her so much. I realized that the qualities that Edwina has are the ones that tend to be undervalued in society — of having an open heart, being kind, being generous, and being forgiving. I couldn’t help but think, “Wouldn’t the world be a better place if more people were like Edwina?” And especially coming from Indian culture, there’s so much emphasis on your child being smart or being this or that. But surely, the most important thing is that your child is kind.
Valentina Valentini is a London-based entertainment, travel, and food writer and also a Senior Contributor for Shondaland. Elsewhere she has written for Vanity Fair, Vulture, Variety, Thrillist, Heated, and The Washington Post. Her personal essays can be read in the Los Angeles Times, Longreads, and her tangents and general complaints can be seen on Twitter at @ByValentinaV.
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