It must be hard being the mother of eight extremely good-looking children, each intelligent and kind in their own right, and often dealing with some sort of mild drama or lovesick narrative. Sure, you deserve a lot of the credit, but their lights often shine just a bit too bright for your own light to ever make its way to the front of the stage.
If you haven’t guessed already, we’re talking about Lady Violet Bridgerton, the doyenne of the Bridgerton brood whose lives and loves we’ve been following for two seasons on the smash Netflix hit Bridgerton. Played by Ruth Gemmell, Lady Bridgerton has, up to this point, appeared in bits and spurts throughout the series, guiding her children with words of wisdom and always being available to help them navigate the tricky business of the ton.
But now, in the Bridgerton prequel series, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, currently streaming on Netflix, Violet is one of the few characters, along with her ride-or-dies Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel) and Lady Danbury (Adjoa Andoh), who cross over into the new series so that we can finally get some backstory on how all three formidable women found their place and power in the upper echelons of English society.
Even though the story of Queen Charlotte largely revolves around the love story between young Queen Charlotte (India Amarteifio) and young King George (Corey Mylchreest) at the dawn of their reign, the flash-forwards, which take us to the ton we’ve come to recognize through Bridgerton, offer fresh ground for deeper moments with characters like Lady Violet Bridgerton. In fact, we feel pretty good making the argument that she has some of the best conversations and drops the funniest lines — “I almost asked a footman to lie on top of me” is a good example — and that she and Lady Danbury get to tackle the idea of women over 50 and their desire.
“The scenes I have with Lady Danbury are so lovely,” says Gemmell, who has built a close off-screen relationship with her on-screen sparring buddy. “Normally in Bridgerton, there are such huge scenes, either a ball scene or some kind of event going on, and there are [dozens] of characters, and when we get to share our friendship, more often than not, it’s little sound-bites within those scenes. Whereas [with Queen Charlotte], Shonda’s written some lovely intimate scenes that are conversational pieces, so we get to explore our vulnerability or our nervousness or our fears. The thing about women of a certain — well, anyone of a certain — age is that you have lived a life, and it’s quite nice to be able to make a statement with it, really.”
When Gemmell learned of the prequel series, which dropped on May 4, she was pleasantly surprised to discover what her role in Queen Charlotte was going to be like and how Lady Bridgerton was going to be portrayed outside of her children and motherhood. That Rhimes was to write [perhaps add “or co-write”] it all had the Londoner practically giddy. But it was getting to see the younger versions of the characters she knows so well that truly caught her fancy.
“Apart from what Corey and India do, which is absolutely beautiful, it’s been interesting for me to see Connie Jenkins-Greig and what she does with a younger Violet,” says Gemmell, who only crossed paths on set once with Jenkins-Greig. “I’m not interested in what I could say to her about that; I’m interested in what she brings to it. It’s only right that an actress takes [a character] on board and makes it their own; that’s vitally important. And with Violet, we already know little snippets of who she is and why she ticks, so it’s nice for me to see the older [version of her] finding things difficult and not knowing how to navigate it.”
One might find it hard to believe, but Lady Bridgerton is Gemmell’s first nice-mom role. Up until now, she’s played “really crap mothers” and evil characters. In the popular 2004 British TV movie Tracy Beaker: The Movie of Me, Gemmell played Tracy’s mother, Carly Beaker, who put her child in a care home, then came back to get her out, but then got a job in Hollywood, so she put Tracy back in the care home. In January 2009, Gemmell landed a recurring role in EastEnders as Debra Dean, a mother who abandons her infant daughter. Mama Beaker and Mama Dean couldn’t be further from Mama Bridgerton.
“I quite like evil characters,” says Gemmell with a laugh. “They are quite good fun [to play]. I’ve been a mass murderer several times. I’ve died quite a lot; I don’t mind dying. I quite like killing people. [But now] I’m a really good mom, and I can’t tell you how exciting that is.”
Why does she think she’s finally gotten a sweeter, kinder role?
“I think it’s age that kind of makes you look sort of slightly warmer, perhaps,” she says.
In any case, Gemmell is glad to mix it up, though nowadays, after three years of Lady Bridgerton and more to come, perhaps she’ll get typecast as the “good mom” from now on. Still, she feels she knows Violet so well that it’s like putting on a favorite sweater every time she steps onto the set. And while Queen Charlotte predominantly shows Lady Bridgerton exploring her friendship with Lady Danbury, there are things unsaid between the two old pals. But Gemmell thinks the two come out with a stronger friendship by the end, which is quite interesting considering the secrets between them. But that’s very British of them, explains Gemmell.
“The thing is about all these vulnerabilities that you show — admittedly, I haven’t given birth — but whether it’s the feeling of grief, of being sidelined, of not finding love, of feeling lonely, they’re all things that we recognize. And in exploring these sorts of things in Violet, we’re sucked into more of the character. [But] I’ve never found her one-dimensional,” she says.
In the final episode of Queen Charlotte, Lady Bridgerton says she is thinking of starting anew, which, of course, leads us all to think the same thing: Is that a tease for what’s to come in Bridgerton season three?
“Inasmuch as she’s encouraged by Lady Danbury to flirt, even just the idea of entertaining [that] has probably lifted a cloud that hangs over her. [But] she’s still got young children, and though no one will ever [come close] to [her late husband] Edmund, there is definitely the idea of being open,” Gemmell says.
Valentina Valentini is a London-based entertainment, travel, and food writer and is also a senior contributor to 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 and Longreads, and her tangents and general complaints can be seen on Instagram at @ByValentinaV.
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