A new member of the ton! Season 2 introduced Bridgerton viewers to several characters — including Charithra Chandran as Edwina Sharma.
In the book series, written by Julia Quinn, the younger sister has a more passive role to play as her older sister, Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley), finds herself falling in love with Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey). The hit Netflix series took several liberties with the source material to create a more in-depth character.
Ahead of the season 2 premiere, Chandran opened up about how she initially found it difficult to connect to Edwina. “It’s hard to play a character who could easily be quite saccharine,” the actress told Shondaland in March 2022. “The only way that you push past that over-sweetness is to really commit to it, to make her more like an ingenue who’s excited by the world.”
The U.K. native noted that she grew to appreciate her character after filming her scenes for season 2. “Having played her now, I love her so much because she has so many good things that are often not considered valuable in our society,” Chandran told Canada’s The Kit that same month. “She chooses to trust people, which you could see as naïveté or immaturity, but it’s a choice that she makes to see the best in others. Wouldn’t the world be a better place if everyone could be a bit more like Edwina?”
During the interview, Chandran also addressed the inclusivity that came from casting her and Ashley in the lead roles.
“My mom and I are obsessed with Colin Firth’s Pride and Prejudice, and we watch it like three times a year, but I never thought this was a possibility,” she added. “When I put on the dress with the empire waistline, I was teary-eyed I never expected this, because I’d never seen a Brown person in a dress like that on a show like this. It would be absurd to say that there were South Asian nobility in England in 1814. But how wonderful is it that there are in Bridgerton?”
For the season 2 newcomer, getting to appear in the regency romance series allowed her to pick up some very valuable lessons.
“Ultimately, what I learned from all the amazing actors that I’ve worked with is that you just need to be prepared. If you know your lines, then you can forget about them in a way and just have a play and be fully reactive, and that’s where the magic and the spark happens,” Chandran shared with India’s World Is One News in March 2022.
She continued: “Generally what this has taught me is sometimes you need to bet on yourself, and you need to take a risk. Abandoning a very prestigious and more stable career path in pursuit of my dreams is a big risk, especially with two traditionally academic Indian parents. But it has been the most rewarding experience in my life. I’ve never been happier.”
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