‘Queen Charlotte’ stars break down their garden meet-cute and more

Turns out shooting the meet-cute between Queen Charlotte (India Amarteifio) and King George III (Corey Mylchreest) was a royal pain in the butt.

The Shondaland series, itself a spinoff of the wildly popular Bridgerton, crafted an adorable first meeting for the duo. Despite being betrothed to him in an arranged marriage, when Charlotte first meets George, she does not know who he is. She is climbing the garden wall, attempting to escape her fate, when George interrupts her.

Rom-com worthy, to be sure. But for Amarteifio, it was mostly about trying not to fall off the wall in her expansive costumes. “I know the scene quite well because that was the scene that we auditioned with,” she tells Entertainment Weekly. “So, I didn’t have think about that. It was just, ‘How can I get this dress and my shoes onto a wall and then jump down successfully?'”

“It was annoying,” she continues,” because Corey comes in and he’s just there, and then I turn around and look really disheveled. I wish I’d pulled something slightly more picturesque. I’m very happy for you, Corey, but for myself being selfish I would have liked to have done something different.”

Mylchreest totally understands where his costar is coming from, adding, “I remember thinking, ‘Thank god I don’t have to do that.’ And you dealt with it like a pro.”

Besides their garden encounter, Charlotte and George have numerous other memorable moments, including the first time she encounters him in a fit of madness in the night, the birth of their first child, and when she holds his hand as he rests beneath the bed. In honor of Shondaland’s 20th anniversary, Amarteifio and Mylchreest take us on a royal promenade through the making of Queen Charlotte.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You two are one of the newer couples in Shondaland history. What was it like the first time you met each other coming into this project knowing you were going to be telling a love story?

COREY MYLCHREEST: Well, the first time that we met was when we were doing a chemistry test. She came out of the chemistry test room with all of the important people from Shondaland, and I tried to make a connection over something. I said, “What do you like?” And you said, “Oh, I like darts.” And I thought, “Oh, amazing. I’ve just been watching the world darts’ championship. We were massively into it in my house and we had a dartboard and she was suddenly speaking about something that I loved, which was darts.” Then, I went on this massive rampage about darts and she looked at me really oddly and she said, “I’m so sorry to interrupt, but I said dance, not darts.”

Was your meeting in the garden the first thing you shot together?

INDIA AMARTEIFIO: The garden scene was so far into filming that it was slightly difficult to have to go back so many steps. We built this trust and this relationship, and by then, we’d created such strong characters that to go back to the beginning to the basics of things was really challenging. But looking back that scene requires a lot of attention and listening, and maybe that was a skill that we developed between us as we went along in the job. So, doing it fresh off the bat of starting the job would have had a completely different outcome. Our first scene together actually was the scene just after the wedding when we arrive at Blenheim Palace. That also was a scene where we would have liked a little bit more time, but what a way to jump straight into a crazy project.

We’ve seen so many different versions of relationships on Shondaland shows, but I don’t know that we’ve seen an arranged marriage that becomes true love. What was the approach for both of you?

MYLCHREEST: Sometimes as actors, it’s dramaturgically interesting and useful to analyze the whole throughline of a story before you engage in something so that you know where to place beats. You don’t want peak too soon because you want to give the audience something to grow with. But in that case, you just play it moment for moment because at the beginning, there’s a connection between these two people as there are with people that are friends or lovers or people that have gone to have an 80 year marriage, people that have a one-night stand, whatever it is, there is a connection between George and Charlotte. It’s because of similarities in their relationship to the world and to the society that surrounds them. And they’re two young people that are attracted to each other as well. But it’s through the hurdles that they go through and the understanding of each other and seeing the pain the other person carries and how strong each other are, all of the things that normally make people deepen in their love. But I wasn’t necessarily thinking: We have to start off as arranged marriage and then turn into true love.

AMARTEIFIO: The writing informed us completely. When you are focusing on character, you’re not thinking that far ahead. And we were very blessed that the scripts allowed that. I don’t think we were ever at a point where we were panicking or wondering what the next scene was.

Going back to the garden scene, aside from the dress making life difficult, what do you remember about filming that?

AMARTEIFIO: Honestly, some of those days, we were up so early. I remember that day we were up at like 4 a.m, to get that beautiful sunrise.

MYLCHREEST: Because it’s meant to be sunset, but we had two shots, so we were there for the whole day, so that we did the sunrise and the sunset.

AMARTEIFIO: I remember Corey had a slingshot that day.

MYLCHREEST: Yes I did! I broke a boiled egg. Jim, the sound guy, it was his. I don’t know if the egg was also Jim’s. And then I slingshot-ed the egg and broke into it. And I said, “Sorry.” And then he said, “Don’t worry.” And then he proceeded to still peel and eat this boiled egg. He said, “Don’t waste a good egg,” or something like that.

That scene is also the first time he says “Just George,” which becomes very important in their relationship. How did you find the right tenor of that? Did you try saying it a lot of different ways?

MYLCHREEST: There are some things that have become a thing since finishing it, like “Just George” or “Farmer George.” I don’t know about you, India, but they were slight things that we knew of in the script. I knew that that was a way that he referred to himself. Not because he thought his name was “Just George,” but she kept calling him, “Your Majesty.” And he was just correcting it. It wasn’t a thing. But it’s so weird to think that those are the things that pick up traction. Because they’re not really at the forefront of your mind when performing. It goes to show that the story that you’re making really does exist in the eye of the beholder because there are so many things that you have no idea about that are the genius of the writing or of the directing. I can’t remember ever putting any emphasis or rehearsal into how I was going to say, “Just George.”

AMARTEIFIO: That’s what works though, because it’s authentic. You weren’t trying anything, it just happened.

So much of this love story is how Charlotte shows up for George in his more difficult moments. So prepping those, especially that scene where she’s Venus, what did that entail?

MYLCHREEST: That was an example of something where India was acutely aware, as any empathetic, humane person is, of how vulnerable I was during the filming of that scene. I felt a lot of pressure and I was nervous leading up to it. I’d been rehearsing that scene on my own, and when you’ve rehearsed something so much, and you know that someone else knows that, doing it becomes even more vulnerable because you know that they know that you care so much about how it goes. Doing that felt much more vulnerable doing it in front of India than it would have in front of people that I didn’t know so well. And I can imagine India, reacting as Charlotte to George, you are also maybe able to use some of India knowing how much Corey is feeling vulnerable.

AMARTEIFIO: He couldn’t have said any better. I didn’t feel like I needed to honestly do any prep. I was just looking and listening and reacting as Charlotte would, but I knew that that scene was super important to Corey. So, I knew that I had to show up and that was my own pressure to be there. But ultimately, I just had to be led by my friend. It was very intense though to watch. It was super cold and super late at night, and Corey’s butt naked.

MYLCHREEST: India’s role in that scene is to observe me, but my role in that scene is to be somewhere so completely elsewhere that I wasn’t really paying any attention. At least not as a like sane, healthy person. So, I got the gift of watching what India did for the first time when it’s all cut together. But I remember there’s one shot where it cuts to India where it’s like, you can’t fake that and it’s just so raw — you see someone’s heart breaking.

Another big milestone in their relationship is that he fights to stay with her through childbirth. When you first read that in the script, were you surprised? Because it is obviously not normal for this time period or for the royal family.

AMARTEIFIO: It’s not a shock because that feels like something George would do. He’s not going to let his wife be suffering in a room next door and not be there, if he can help it. So, I wasn’t shocked. I’d done a birthing scene before on a previous job, and I was terrified to do it again because it’s so physically and emotionally draining. It’s like you’re birthing a phantom baby almost. It’s another beautiful nod to their actual love, that he will go against the norm to be there for someone that he cares about.

Corey, was that your first time being present for a woman in labor?

MYLCHREEST: On screen, yes, off screen, I’ve done it many times. I’ve aided many, many, many midwiferies. (Laughs) It was completely my first time, of course. First of all, (our director) Tom (Verica) was being really lovely because I was being such a diva. I really thought that I was doing some s— work, basically. I was smoking a cigarette outside, and Tom was like, “Dude, you’re fine.” But other than that, I remember the scream that India made. It’s such a specific scream because it’s not like a scream that’s like hoarse. It was a really clean scream. And I have been in a maternity ward before as a conscious adult, and it’s that scream and you nailed it. I remember using that on the day because it didn’t feel fake. What’s also really lovely is that George tries to go in and then gets told “no” and accepts that. And then it’s Lady Danbury that comes out and gives him a little bit more of a push, which is a really lovely detail. And I would love to say that I was playing someone who didn’t need the little push, but sometimes when someone is going against the grain, they need a bit of help. That is a scene about Charlotte and George’s bravery. But also it’s very subtly a scene of female allyship between those two.

The last shot of the two of you holding hands, with George under the bed, that goes from the older couple and then flashes back to you. What was filming that like? Because you’re under a bed, there’s got to be a camera in your face.

AMARTEIFIO: That was mental. It was a crazy day. They basically filmed it a multitude of different ways. They filmed it clean off Golda (Rosheuvel) and James (Fleet) doing the scene. Then, they swapped James out and they swapped in Corey. Then, they did that scene together. Then Golda stepped out. I then did the scene with Corey, and Corey stepped out, and then, I did the scene with James. By the end of it, we were all a bit lost in who’s who and what’s where and what year and century and time we’re in. And also, the mechanics of how that day worked. They have this massive rig that they had created to film under the bed, but they’d made a higher bed so we weren’t completely squished. You could get the beautiful lighting in and the camera can have its field day and do what it needed there. But it was a technical, emotional day.

Were you both actually laying on the floor in terms of the setup?

MYLCHREEST: Yeah, and it was like maybe two weeks after we had already done a scene under the bed, just the two of us, where something with parliament’s gone wrong. And that was quite an emotional day. But we’d had practice at being under the bed, and they cut the hole out, and that camera is closer than any camera will ever get to any actor ever, unless someone swallows a camera. It’s so strange and it’s a real challenge to stay in the thought of the character. No matter where you look, there’s a camera there. It’s a lesson in acceptance. (The final scene) is the only scene in the whole thing that when I watched, it made me cry. Because often you’re analyzing, doing all of those vain egotistical things. In that one moment, it’s such a surreal experience, because you’re able to see a character that isn’t you, that you have done so much work understanding, it all hits you in one moment because suddenly it’s not you. I will never have the words to describe that feeling. The idea that the two younger people are also doing the same scene was Tom’s idea quite late on. They didn’t know how they were going to edit it or where they were going to cut bits in or if they were going to use it at all.

What do you think sets Charlotte and George apart in the world of Shondaland?

AMARTEIFIO: Honestly, I don’t think they’re necessarily set apart. Shonda and the team are so fantastic at writing characters that mean something to people outside of the show. The people that come to me saying how much they love the show, a lot of the time they’re just like, “Thank you for portraying her as loving someone who has a mental health (challenge), loving someone that is not perfect. Having real world impact is what makes Queen Charlotte and their story so real. It does stand out in that way.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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