With every new season of 1800s high society London, there are a few things fans can look forward to from the Bridgerton Cinematic Universe: the central couple will have an epic slow-burning romance (and one will burn for the other), instrumental pop covers will serve as the soundtrack for sweeping ballroom scenes, and Queen Charlotte’s hair will be as high as our expectations. And every season, I am seated, snacks in hand, ready to gossip like Lady Whistledown from my couch and ooh and ahh over the gowns and gorgeous Black hair creations. It’s not just the fancy wigs that make Queen Charlotte’s styles spectacular; it’s that in regency era England, seeing that hair and that face reign over a fictional kingdom is thrilling, albeit slightly confusing. Abolish the monarchy — except for the fake one where its queen rocks two-foot 4C hair with a motorised swan gliding through it just because she can.
Depending on which scholar you ask, the real Queen Charlotte may or may not have been Black — but this one (played in Bridgerton by Golda Rosheuvel) is undoubtedly so, and as we saw in the show’s prequel (where India Amarteifio plays young Queen Charlotte), she had to fight to wear what she wanted and express herself authentically. It makes more sense through the lens Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story depicted that the queen’s clothes and hair are an extension of her independence, a subversive show of rebellion, and a display of power and purpose. She’s had to play the game carefully so that through her marriage, the ton — the aristocrats and noblemen and women of British high society — could be integrated and a more inclusive society could be born, in theory. The racial dynamics within the BCU get a little hazy if you think about them too hard (season 1 was a mess and season 2 basically ignored race altogether) but if you look at Queen Charlotte as a figurehead of representation for resilience and grace in an archaic institution, you can take her big, coily, kinky hair as an act of rebellion or just what an acceptable regal hairstyle would be if a Black woman was the one making up the arbitrary rules on what is considered acceptable.
It was very important for [the Bridgerton hair designer] to deal with different Black textures to really celebrate my Blackness through the wigs of Queen Charlotte… Nobody had ever had those conversations with me as an artist, a Black artist.
Golda Rosheuvel
For Golda Rosheuvel, Queen Charlotte’s hair is a beautiful result of care and skill behind the camera — something she had yet to experience in her long career before Bridgerton. “On our first meeting, [Bridgerton makeup and hair designer Erika Ökvist] made me cry,” Rosheuvel tells me over Zoom from London during a packed press day for the cast. “Because it was the first time that I had been in conversation with a head of a department of that calibre — or anybody — discussing the fact that she was going to incorporate my own hair into the looks and that it was very important for her to deal with different Black textures to really celebrate my Blackness through the wigs of Queen Charlotte.” Rosheuvel is getting a bit emotional. “Nobody had ever had those conversations with me as an artist, a Black artist.” Rosheuvel says she and Ökvist are very collaborative. “[We have] conversations of how we incorporate [different] textures, you know, dreadlocks, plaited hair, curly kinks, all of that kind of stuff. She was really focused on doing that for me and the character.”
One should never underestimate the hand of Her Majesty The Queen… pic.twitter.com/8GsffMG1VE
— Bridgerton (@bridgerton) April 19, 2024
One of the wigs that caused a lot of conversation when it was first revealed in April during a teaser for Bridgerton Season 3 is the swan wig — mainly because of its innovation, boldness, and quite frankly, its historical inaccuracy. TVLine called it, “the monarch’s most jaw-dropping wig yet: a white, Fabergé egg-inspired piece complete with an oil painted backdrop and motorized crystal swans nestled inside.” It’s wild, and yes, motorised swans (or motorized anything) hadn’t technically been invented yet but this is a world in which interracial couples dance blissfully at balls in regency-era England to covers of BTS and Pitbull so I think we can suspend our disbelief when it comes to a fun hairstyle. When I tell Rosheuvel that the wig has been the talk of the timeline, she laughs.
“It caused a lot of conversation for us as well!” Rosheuvel says. “[Erica] had the idea of making a wig with some kind of motorized thing in it. She had that idea at the beginning of season 2. It took two years for all the different departments to be involved and for the powers that be to actually sign off on it for the actual design and creation and storytelling… You have the ballet that’s happening in front of her. And then the swans are all moving inside the wig. I’m really proud and really happy that we managed to have that celebration for Erica because she’s an amazing hair and makeup designer.”
Rosheuvel is being modest, something her character wouldn’t dare do. It takes a special performer to be able to pull off such an audacious look, which was, according to Rosheuvel “surprisingly not heavy.”
“It’s very light because the mechanism was on my thigh — the motor was on my thigh,” she says proudly. “I think if the motor had been inside the wig, I think it would have been heavy. Those were the kind of talks that they were having for two years. How they were going to get the motor in the wig? Was it going to be in the wig? Was it going to be somewhere in the costume? I was very lucky [with what they came up with].”
As a viewer (and obsessive fan), I feel lucky that Rosheuvel is our Queen Charlotte. We were given a rich backstory and emotional depth through the prequel but in the present-day Bridgerton story, the Queen isn’t given much to do, except look on disapprovingly at the ton’s latest couples and search for her nemesis, Lady Whistledown. In a lesser actor’s hands, the Queen could be an inconsequential character, an afterthought on the way to the happily ever after of the central pairing (this season, it’s Colin and Penelope or ‘Polin’ for the initiated). Rosheuvel’s Queen Charlotte is terrifying yet tender, intimidating, and inquisitive. She’s disinterested and delightfully quick-witted. She’s a bitch and she’s that bitch. She’s giving Beyoncé and Queen Ramonda of Wakanda all at the same time. It’s no surprise then that Rosheuvel says that Angela Bassett is one of the people she channels while playing Charlotte.
“I was very privileged to meet [Angela Bassett]. A few months ago, we did an animation together. We went to the premiere and I stood right beside her. I played it cool. And, we sat in the green room together, I was really cool. And then in the bathroom. I literally [looked] in the mirror and was like, Oh, my, what the hell is happening to me, Angela Bassett is in the next room and like she’s talking to me!”
All of these iconic Black women that we see now that are up front and center in these stories for Black women, I think all of them are incorporated in Queen Charlotte somehow.
Golda Rosheuvel
It’s hard to think of Queen Charlotte being star struck by anyone but if it was going to be anyone, it would be Angela Bassett — or maybe Viola Davis, another icon Rosheuvel cites as an inspiration for playing the Queen. “All of these iconic Black women that we see now that are up front and centre in these stories for Black women, I think all of them are incorporated in Queen Charlotte somehow.”
I can feel that energy watching Queen Charlotte work a room; when she’s throwing Brimsley cuteye it’s pure Annalise Keating, or when she’s staring down a potential diamond withering under her gaze, she’s Romanda. While the glimpses of her inspirations are there, the final product is all Rosheuvel. As much as I wish they’d give her and King George more to do in their older timeline (I guess we’re to assume he doesn’t have many lucid moments anymore), Rosheuvel is making the most of what she’s been given. And when it comes to her hair, she’s grateful she gets to show off natural Black hairstyles in all their regal, beautiful, wondrous glory. And for her, the freedom to do that, in this industry — finally! — feels personal.
“I was so thrilled to be able to celebrate that part of myself,” Rosheuvel says. “I’m a biracial actress so to have my father and that part of my life celebrated in that way, is everything.”
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
The Queen Charlotte Cast’s Natural Hair Matters