'Queen Charlotte' 's Arsema Thomas on Her Breakout Role as Young Lady Danbury – Sex Scenes and All (Exclusive)
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The latest star of the Bridgerton universe has won the hearts of fans with her portrayal of the beloved character — and now, she's speaking to PEOPLE about how she did it
Warning: This post contains spoilers for Netflix's Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story.
They both command attention when they're in a room, hold their head high and steal scenes with their respective, nuanced performances.
But believe it or not, the two actors who portrayed Lady Agatha Danbury in Netflix's Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story — Arsema Thomas and Adjoa Andoh — never practiced mirroring each other's mannerisms and speech beforehand.
Thomas, 28 — who goes by the pronouns she/they — tells PEOPLE that the show's director said, "This is your character. You do what you want with it," as she prepped to tell Lady Danbury's backstory.
She adds, "Because I never watched [Bridgerton before auditioning], I came in just being what I thought this character should be. Somehow, by I don't know what kind of cosmic aligning, it happened to be very similar to how Adjoa sees this character as well."
Related: Cast: Everything to Know
It was during their first Zoom call with the British star, who made Lady Danbury a fan favorite in the first two seasons of Bridgerton, that Thomas discovered the similarities they had in real life.
"In the background in her video, she had books that I had on my bookshelf. It was the autobiography of [civil rights activist] Assata Shakur. It was this amazing collection of revolutionary art out of the US during the '70s by the Black Panthers. It was all these things that really were nonverbal indicators of just how aligned we are in our values," Thomas recalls.
"The mannerisms were just there organically. I don't know if it's cultural because she's Ghanian and I am Nigerian. Those parts of us come from our fathers, so that maybe manifests in a similar way," she continues. "I don't know but the mannerisms were something that we didn't have to speak about at all."
It's hard to believe that Queen Charlotte's Lady Danbury is Thomas's first major role. The Atlanta-born actor only graduated from drama school last year. Bearing that in mind, it's understandable why the fan of executive producer Shonda Rhimes says the experience of filming the Bridgerton prequel was "surreal."
"It was one of the greatest privileges I think I've ever been able to have to date," Thomas says, adding, "Every day I felt as though this could not possibly be my life. I never thought I would actually be able to achieve what I wanted to achieve. So, to be waking up, going to sets, getting into hair and makeup, going through my lines for the day… I mean, I had to keep busy just so that I would keep myself cemented to the earth."
Related:All About the Real Queen Charlotte Who Inspired the Bridgerton Spinoff Series
Scroll through Twitter and it's clear that one aspect of Lady Danbury that has captured fans' attention from the moment Thomas first appears on the screen is the aristocrat's sex life. Viewers are introduced to the younger version of the character staring into space as her older husband Lord Danbury (Cyril Nri) vigorously makes love to her.
There's no pleasure in her disassociated face and the fact that she leapt into a hot steaming bath afterwards speaks volumes. Though filmed for comedic effect, the sex scene still required intimacy coaches.
"They were really amazing because both Cyril and I were coming into this space very new in a way," Thomas says. "Cyril spoke about never having been in a space where there was an intimacy coordinator, so how refreshing that was."
"And me, I went to drama school during the pandemic, so I studied drama with all of us six feet apart. So, I've never even been that close to anyone. She was able to break everything down in such a way that made it disarming and so comfortable, using bite size pieces," she notes.
Thomas adds, "It was great because it was her top priority that we were comfortable, which meant that we could just act and have fun with the scene because she would be there to come in and check to make sure that nothing changed in any of our minds."
In contrast, Lady Danbury's sex scenes with Lord Ledger (Keir Charles) were a lot more intimate... and steamy. More about a woman exploring and enjoying her sexuality; more pleasure, less duty.
Thomas says, "I think in that moment, she is finally being able to do what she wants. As a woman, she has never been able to make a decision that has been truly for herself. She says it in her speech, 'I was 3 years old when my parents promised me.' That means all her life, Agatha has not been Agatha. She has been Herman Danbury's wife."
Thomas notes the dalliance with Lord Ledger is the first time the character frees "herself from what society thinks of her" and "what she thinks of herself."
"She is now able to embrace what she wants fully and is finally understanding what that is," she continues.
It all contributes to the development of the older Lady Danbury, the savvy widow that Bridgerton fans love. Asked to describe her in three words, Thomas simply says, "Revolutionary, strategic, loving."
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Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story is now streaming on Netflix.
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