Speaker 1: Bridgerton The Official Podcast is a production of Shondaland in
Speaker 1: partnership with iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to Bridgerton the Official Podcast, your exclusive peak
Speaker 2: behind the curtain of Shondaland's Bridgerton series. I'm Betsy Beers,
Speaker 2: executive producer Bridgerton, and I'm also your host of Inside
Speaker 2: the Time, a deep dive into the genesis and journey
Speaker 2: of some of the most beloved characters from the show.
Speaker 2: For the third installment of this four part special, we're
Speaker 2: meddling in the business of Violet Bridgerton and Portia Featherington,
Speaker 2: two widow mothers of the Tongue who on the surface
Speaker 2: really could not be more different from one another, But
Speaker 2: one thing they have in common, Both mamma's are determined
Speaker 2: to do what they think is best for their children.
Speaker 2: I'll be joined by the remarkable writers and bona fide
Speaker 2: Bridgerton scholars, author Julia Quinn and showrunner Jess Bronell. We'll
Speaker 2: also hear from the actors Ruth Gemmel and Polly Walker
Speaker 2: on the intersection of these legendary matriarchs. But first, come on,
Speaker 2: let's recall the recent events in the lives of Lady
Speaker 2: Violet Bridgerton and Lady Porscha Featherington. Lady Porsha Featherington has
Speaker 2: spent the better part of the past two seasons and
Speaker 2: brailled in scandal. Wow, there has been a lot of scandal. First,
Speaker 2: she welcomed to pregnant Marina Thompson into her home, and
Speaker 2: while Porsche tried to marry her off before the rest
Speaker 2: of the time learned her secret, Lady Whistledown had other plans. Meanwhile,
Speaker 2: Porsha's husband gambled away all their money and he passed away,
Speaker 2: leaving them nearly destitute. What is a widow to do? Well,
Speaker 2: turns out the new Lord Featherington proved to be another disappointment.
Speaker 2: Lady Featherington tried her best to sway things in her
Speaker 2: and her daughter's favor, but Lord Featherington, as it turns out,
Speaker 2: was far from the gentlemen he made himself out to be.
Speaker 2: But through her cutting intellect, Portia found a way to
Speaker 2: send him back to America, narrowly avoiding another full blown scandal.
Speaker 2: And not only that, she successfully married off two of
Speaker 2: her daughters. Now dearest Penelope still remains. Meanwhile, we've watched
Speaker 2: as Lady Violet Bridgerton peers off her brood on the
Speaker 2: marriage mart A favorite of the Ton, Violet herself set
Speaker 2: an enviable example, having made a star cross love match
Speaker 2: with her late husband Edmund. Since his untimely passing, her
Speaker 2: garden has yet to bloom. If you get my drift.
Speaker 2: She's been much more preoccupied with helping her children find love,
Speaker 2: and after her great success marrying Dafning off to the Duke,
Speaker 2: Violet had a bumpier time convincing Anthony to follow his heart.
Speaker 2: Now after successfully settling Antony with this perfect match Kate,
Speaker 2: Lady Bridgerton has only got six more children to help
Speaker 2: find the same happiness. And by the way, Lady Bridgerton
Speaker 2: has had to navigate her own shrif of scandals brought
Speaker 2: upon her family by Colin, Antony and Eloise, But the Bridgertons,
Speaker 2: they always seem to land on top. Lady Bridgerton and
Speaker 2: Lady Featherington are absolutely totally two of my favorite characters
Speaker 2: in the Ton. I had the opportunity to continue my
Speaker 2: character chats with the amazing Julia Quinn, author of the
Speaker 2: Bridgerton series. Julia and I talked about the matriarchs as
Speaker 2: they were conceived in the books. What motherhood looked like
Speaker 2: in the regency era and the ways readers might even
Speaker 2: be smarter than writers. Okay, let's take just talk a
Speaker 2: little bit about you know, two of my favorite people
Speaker 2: in the world, Lady Featherington and Lady Bridgerton. How different
Speaker 2: are these two as mothers? I mean, come on, oh,
Speaker 2: they're so different.
Speaker 3: But yet oh my gosh, can we just take a
Speaker 3: Polly Walker appreciation moment?
Speaker 2: Oh, just have a moment please for one of the
Speaker 2: just an amazing actress and somebody who makes me both
Speaker 2: shudder and love her at the same time.
Speaker 3: And I mean, we need to take a Ruth Gemmel
Speaker 3: appreciation moment too. But I think what Polly does has
Speaker 3: got to be harder because I mean, we just we
Speaker 3: love Violet, we just adore her, every inch of her,
Speaker 3: every inch of her. But then for Lady Featherington, I mean,
Speaker 3: you hate her half the time and yet you sympathize
Speaker 3: whether she has these moments where like in season one
Speaker 3: when she's talking to Marina at the end, I was
Speaker 3: just like, how did she do that?
Speaker 2: Ugh? Oh yeah, And look, I'm just gonna say for
Speaker 2: everybody what you see in season three, it's one of
Speaker 2: the best sort of film and character journeys I've seen
Speaker 2: in a really really long time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just you know, when you can make a
Speaker 3: character who does things that are so unkind still be
Speaker 3: so sympathetic, it's brilliant, both her and the writers for
Speaker 3: the show because in the book she's not nearly a
Speaker 3: big as big a role. So I have to really
Speaker 3: give credit to the screenwriters for, you know, the ways
Speaker 3: that they have expanded her and built her out.
Speaker 2: Oh and I think even you know, season's went into understanding.
Speaker 2: I mean, she's diabolical, but understanding always why she's doing it,
Speaker 2: because it's that that glimpse of the relationship with her
Speaker 2: husband in season one where you're just oh, this it's
Speaker 2: it lies in such stark contrast, as you said, with
Speaker 2: the Bridgerton's and the relationship Violet had, you know, the
Speaker 2: love that died that will never be again. You know
Speaker 2: that that entire contrast is just It's also I think
Speaker 2: for me when I look at this and I say, okay,
Speaker 2: it's fascinating to me the different forms of child rearing
Speaker 2: that occurred during this period of time. I mean, can
Speaker 2: you speak to that some because obviously Violet's a very
Speaker 2: different kind of other than Penelope Porsia.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I suspect that PSI, I suspect that there
Speaker 3: weren't that many families like the Bridgertons. To be honest
Speaker 3: with you, I don't think that level of involvement was
Speaker 3: that common there. You know a lot of people they
Speaker 3: would see their kids once a day when the nannies
Speaker 3: would bring them out. So that was fairly I think atypical,
Speaker 3: which isn't say didn't happen, but I don't think that
Speaker 3: was typical for aristocratic families in that time period.
Speaker 2: The Violet. One of the things which is really always
Speaker 2: interesting obviously about the world is violets say, total anomaly
Speaker 2: as she is for you know, wanting her children to
Speaker 2: marry for love. It's interesting because they're both widows, so
Speaker 2: or at least Porsha becomes a widow or we watch
Speaker 2: or become a widow, and they seem to really navigate
Speaker 2: the world incredibly differently. Okay, this is just a random question.
Speaker 2: How did you come up with names? Because Porscha Featherington
Speaker 2: is such a good name, and the fact it's Porsche.
Speaker 3: I mean, I don't even remember did I name her Porsia?
Speaker 3: I don't even remember.
Speaker 2: That maybe we did. I don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 3: Somebody will let me know, because there are definite books
Speaker 3: where I don't bother giving somebody a first name because
Speaker 3: they're just lady this or that, And I'm like, I wonder,
Speaker 3: I wonder if I could go the entire book without
Speaker 3: saying what her first name is. It's kind of fun
Speaker 3: for me, Like it's like a little challenge I give
Speaker 3: to myself. So so I may not have, you know,
Speaker 3: I have learned that I have a finite ability to
Speaker 3: come up with names, because it turns out and apparently
Speaker 3: I had a someone whistled down in my fourth book,
Speaker 3: just as like a dinner party guest totally realize it. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: no idea. No, I mean so clearly i'd come up
Speaker 3: with that once before. And where did I come with names?
Speaker 3: I mean, for you know, I'll do things like, oh,
Speaker 3: you know where I went once? There used to be
Speaker 3: a Facebook group called I went to a proper English
Speaker 3: boarding school, and I would go there and like, look
Speaker 3: at the names of people who are there, because most
Speaker 3: of them were they were either British or they were
Speaker 3: coming from like Hong Kong, and you could usually tell
Speaker 3: which was which and so you come up with these
Speaker 3: you could see these more kind of traditional names. And
Speaker 3: I did during my gap year. I did go to
Speaker 3: a Church of England all girls boarding school, so and
Speaker 3: I still have my little guidebook, I mean, like the
Speaker 3: list of roster, so I can still like look at
Speaker 3: names there, you know, because these would be you know,
Speaker 3: very middle to upper middle class girls. I I don't
Speaker 3: think there were any aristocrats there. There may have been
Speaker 3: people who were like tangentially involved, but they would have
Speaker 3: had like come from that kind of name pool. And
Speaker 3: then you know, for titles and things like that. I
Speaker 3: would often just look at the addresses, like renames of
Speaker 3: roads and towns and villages and houses and stuff like that.
Speaker 2: I don't know, the name Featherington is so distinct. I mean,
Speaker 2: Bridgerton and Featherington are so it's like they're so they're
Speaker 2: so great, but they're so unique, you know, I mean Featherington,
Speaker 2: it's hysterical.
Speaker 3: Can I point out that people have ascribed to me
Speaker 3: doing the easter egg of making them Featherington's because of
Speaker 3: Penelope's quill And.
Speaker 2: Absolutely was I wish I was that smart?
Speaker 3: Can I tell you, Oh my gosh, I almost hit
Speaker 3: the floor when Mindy Kaling, who you've probably met her
Speaker 3: because you probably know everybody. But I think she's incredible. Okay, okay,
Speaker 3: Mindy for listening. I think you're incredible. But she tweeted
Speaker 3: at one point, you know, thinking you're a Bridgerton when
Speaker 3: but finding out you're really a Featherington something like that,
Speaker 3: and I was like, tweet like again, I'm doing what
Speaker 3: you're doing where I'm like making like gestures that nobody
Speaker 3: can see. But that was like incredible. You know the
Speaker 3: fact that like people like know what these family names
Speaker 3: mean in terms of vibes and whatever.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, yeah, no, it's it is and it
Speaker 2: you really do sort of set up these patterns of,
Speaker 2: you know, immediately how you feel about somebody because the
Speaker 2: Bridgertons have a solid name. It's a bridge. The feather Tints,
Speaker 2: I don't know that we find feathers that dressed worthy
Speaker 2: as opposed to being quills. So somewhere, if I was
Speaker 2: your psychiatrist, I would say, oh, I don't know something
Speaker 2: about your deep subconscious apparently is projecting things.
Speaker 3: You are definitely reading more into this than like I
Speaker 3: ever ever planned. But okay, you can you can who
Speaker 3: knows I was always the person in English class in
Speaker 3: high school going like, why do you know we analyze this,
Speaker 3: but why do we think the author was actually thinking
Speaker 3: about any of this one like she wrote it and so,
Speaker 3: and then the teacher being like, well does it matter
Speaker 3: if it's how we analyze it.
Speaker 2: I'm like, well, yeah, I don't know, but it's where
Speaker 2: you can say, like, but how these people are dead?
Speaker 2: We can't even ask them. We'll be right back after
Speaker 2: the shortbreak. Welcome back to Bridgerton the Official podcast. Some
Speaker 2: of the fun in going from book to screen is
Speaker 2: expanding and adapting the blueprint of the character laid out
Speaker 2: by Julia's novels. Showrunner Jess Brennell and I talked about
Speaker 2: fleshing out and finding three dimensions to Violet and Portie
Speaker 2: within the scripts and what these two seemingly absolutely totally
Speaker 2: different mamas have in common. So when you read the books,
Speaker 2: what did you take away from the books about the
Speaker 2: mothers of the Ton and how do you want to
Speaker 2: see these characters evolve over the course of seasons.
Speaker 4: Well, I'll say first, when I think about the differences
Speaker 4: between Lady Bridgerton and Lady Featherington, I actually think that
Speaker 4: they have more in common than they do differences. You know,
Speaker 4: they both are so devoted to their families. They would
Speaker 4: do anything for their kids. Lady Featherington just has had
Speaker 4: a lot more bad luck than Violet. She had a
Speaker 4: loveless marriage, she's had financial woes, and she probably never
Speaker 4: had a good example of what love looks like if
Speaker 4: I'm guessing. So, she loves her children I think, just
Speaker 4: as much as Violet, but maybe doesn't know how to
Speaker 4: show it. Whereas Violet, who you know, had the love
Speaker 4: of her father, she knows what it's like to receive
Speaker 4: love and to give love. So in terms of evolution
Speaker 4: for the characters, I would love to see Lady Featherington
Speaker 4: find a way to express that affection and love that
Speaker 4: she has for all of her daughters, but especially Penelope,
Speaker 4: in a more direct way. And you know, for Violet,
Speaker 4: I would also like to see her allow maybe some
Speaker 4: love into her life again that isn't just the love
Speaker 4: of her children, because you know, she's so self sacrificing,
Speaker 4: but I think she deserves to put herself first for once.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think, you know, going back to Lady
Speaker 2: Featherington for a second. Two Look, I look at that
Speaker 2: and she didn't have an inheritance. She never got like
Speaker 2: a step up. She from what I can tell from
Speaker 2: season one, that was not an ideal marriage. And he's
Speaker 2: created a whole load of problems. They're heading towards being,
Speaker 2: you know, broke, And people say, oh, she's conniving and terrible,
Speaker 2: but I think in a way in regency world, she's
Speaker 2: just resourceful because she has to figure out ways of being.
Speaker 2: And yeah, she's a social climber because she needs to
Speaker 2: be a social climber. It's not and if you even
Speaker 2: want to call what she does climbing, it's just be
Speaker 2: included to a large degree, you know. And it is
Speaker 2: a sort of market contrast with Violet. The flip side
Speaker 2: for Violet is she did have the perfect love and
Speaker 2: she did. She has involved, and I think engaged all
Speaker 2: of her efforts and emotions in raising her children and
Speaker 2: making sure that they are well taken care of. So
Speaker 2: watching her get to a place where, I mean, eventually
Speaker 2: the kids will be out of the house, I mean
Speaker 2: it's going to take while we have a lot of children, y'all, soo,
Speaker 2: but you do sort of feel like she's going to
Speaker 2: have to get to a place where she she doesn't
Speaker 2: she does something besides worry about two's going to get
Speaker 2: married and how this is going to work and that
Speaker 2: they get married for love, because that's also a lot
Speaker 2: of responsibility, this getting married for love thing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, she's going to have to pick up more
Speaker 4: than just like a pottery hobby, you know, the last years. Like,
Speaker 4: I don't know if that's going to be enough to
Speaker 4: get her through. Her entire meaning in life is about
Speaker 4: her kids, and I think it's going to be tough.
Speaker 4: And you know, on the Lady Featherington comparison, who's to
Speaker 4: say if Violet had the same financial woes that Lady
Speaker 4: Featherington had, she wouldn't start like a fake gem mind
Speaker 4: scam with her cousin.
Speaker 5: You know, it's totally possible.
Speaker 2: Look, and I know, I know we saw in Queen Charlotte.
Speaker 2: If you all have seen Queen Charlotte, it's Lady Danbury
Speaker 2: is trying to help Violet get along with her life.
Speaker 2: And look, there's there's some heavy stuff that's happened between
Speaker 2: the two of them, which everybody deals with with either
Speaker 2: strong SIPs of unknown liquor or tea. And I do
Speaker 2: think it sort of opens the door to what is
Speaker 2: what does Violet really think about everything?
Speaker 6: You know?
Speaker 2: Which I think is also where where is her head at?
Speaker 2: And and I think I think I want to see
Speaker 2: more of Lady Danberry and Violet too, because I feel
Speaker 2: like that's a relationship that we've dug into sort of superficially.
Speaker 2: But Queen Charlotte, then we got a whole nother layer
Speaker 2: in there, and we are further to go there. The
Speaker 2: thing that I feel like we got in Queen Charlotte
Speaker 2: was this idea that there's a lot of there's a
Speaker 2: little bit unfinness business between Lady Danbury and Lady Bridgerton,
Speaker 2: and I feel like we've had in the past couple
Speaker 2: of seasons we sort of scraped the surface on their relationship.
Speaker 2: It's been very it's busy. Mama's trying to get the
Speaker 2: marriages working and the conniving in season one of making
Speaker 2: sure that Simon behaved, and then you know, season two,
Speaker 2: it's the sort of it's helping her navigate, first of all,
Speaker 2: sticking her bigfoot, Lady Danbury's big foot in the Edwina
Speaker 2: Kate situation, going Edwena's right for for Anthony, and they're
Speaker 2: sort of progressing. But I think Queen Charlotte's sort of
Speaker 2: like up for obvious reasons for all of you who
Speaker 2: saw it burst open this world, I think I'm just excited.
Speaker 2: Do you have anything to say about like season three
Speaker 2: and where you think that relationship's going to go or
Speaker 2: what you're excited to see.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, first of all, I'm really grateful to Shonda
Speaker 4: for the backstory of their relationship on Queen Charlotte because
Speaker 4: it gives us so much more depth between those two women.
Speaker 4: You know, in seasons one and two, like it made
Speaker 4: sense why Lady Danberry was so involved in season one
Speaker 4: because she has that connection to Simon. In season two
Speaker 4: she also had a connection to the Sharmas. But when
Speaker 4: we got to season three, we were going she always
Speaker 4: ends up involved in a Bridgerton relationship. What reason are
Speaker 4: we going to create this year? And it's no, we
Speaker 4: don't have to manufacture anything. There is this real depth
Speaker 4: between these two women, between these two families, and Lady
Speaker 4: Danberry has a real reason for her connection to the Bridgertons.
Speaker 4: So knowing that allowed us to go a lot deeper
Speaker 4: with them in this upcoming season and we're continuing on
Speaker 4: I would say, in a small way, from the spin
Speaker 4: off to look further under the hood and focus not
Speaker 4: only on their relationship in terms of meddling and scheming
Speaker 4: with the kids, but what do they actually mean to
Speaker 4: each other and why is something that we will be
Speaker 4: poking at even further.
Speaker 2: That's yeah, I can, I can hardly wait. And they're
Speaker 2: so funny together.
Speaker 4: I mean, I mean, every time I'm on set with Adua,
Speaker 4: I just tell her I go master class, masterclass, and Ruth, like,
Speaker 4: Ruth brings so much humor to lines that I didn't
Speaker 4: realize were funny, just these minute expressions on her face.
Speaker 4: She's They're both incredible to watch.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, and I I mean, I can watch Lady
Speaker 2: Danbury read a whistle down for like six hours, just
Speaker 2: the same shot. It's it's it's all good to me,
Speaker 2: it's all good. So in the business called show, there's
Speaker 2: an old adage that ninety percent of directing is casting. Now,
Speaker 2: I'd say Bridgarton requires a whole lot from every department truly,
Speaker 2: but our cast is constantly wowing us with their brilliance.
Speaker 2: Polly Walker, who plays Porsche, and Ruth Gemmel, who plays Violet,
Speaker 2: are absolutely no exception to that fact. These women are
Speaker 2: such incredible actresses. They are capable of stealing a scene
Speaker 2: with just a look. Here's a peek into Polly and
Speaker 2: Ruth's thoughts on the complex and fascinating women they portray.
Speaker 2: Here's Lady Featherington herself, Polly.
Speaker 6: I always get slightly hurt on Porsche's behalf when people go,
Speaker 6: oh my god, she's so horrible and she's so mean,
Speaker 6: and she's so pushy, and she's such a terrible mother.
Speaker 6: And I think I totally disagree. I think that she's
Speaker 6: a very good mother. It wasn't the era of her
Speaker 6: sentiments and for talking through one's feelings. You know, her
Speaker 6: role was to get her daughters married in the best
Speaker 6: way possible, and she accomplishes it with very with no
Speaker 6: help from anyone. Actually that's not true. She has help
Speaker 6: from Valley, her and Penelope. You know, they've been on
Speaker 6: a journey in their relationship, for sure. I mean she
Speaker 6: certainly kind of overlooked her, and you know, imagine that
Speaker 6: she would never marry and she'd just be her little
Speaker 6: companion through life and with her books, which she would
Speaker 6: doesn't understand why anyone would want to read a book,
Speaker 6: but you know she'll be with her and she'll keep
Speaker 6: her company. So I think she underestimated Penelope massively, you know,
Speaker 6: but Penelope was a dark horse and kept things hidden.
Speaker 2: And here's the divine Lady Bridgerton Ruth Well.
Speaker 5: I guess where we left off was Queen Charlotte, and
Speaker 5: it became very obvious that having witnessed two of her
Speaker 5: children fall in love and be happy. I think it's
Speaker 5: really resonated with her how much she misses her husband,
Speaker 5: how much she misses that intimacy, And with her great
Speaker 5: friend Lady Danbury. I think they realize that it's time
Speaker 5: that she sort of steps back into society. So that's
Speaker 5: where we meet her. They've already she's already kind of
Speaker 5: announced to Lady Danbury if you like that. You know,
Speaker 5: she'd like to see a bit of life again. Really,
Speaker 5: So that's where we are. And you know, also there
Speaker 5: is the usual thing of I have another child out
Speaker 5: in society, and I never stop with my intent on
Speaker 5: marrying them all off. I always go back to and
Speaker 5: dip in and out of the books. And I know
Speaker 5: we're very different. We've sort of taken storylines in slightly
Speaker 5: different ways now, and so going back to the books
Speaker 5: is helpful. And unhelpful. And one of the things that
Speaker 5: I've always loved in the books is that she makes
Speaker 5: all her children dance with Penelope. She keeps sort of
Speaker 5: bringing her in the fold, and I absolutely think she
Speaker 5: knows where this is heading. I mean, she's one of
Speaker 5: these women who just understands her children better than the
Speaker 5: children do.
Speaker 4: Really.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much to my special guest Ruth Gemel,
Speaker 2: Polly Walker, Jess Brownell, and Julia Quinn. I'm your host,
Speaker 2: Betsy Beers, and thank you for listening to Inside the Time.
Speaker 2: Do you have a favorite Violet or Porsche moment so
Speaker 2: far in the series, any predictions for season three? Share
Speaker 2: them in reviews. I'm going to say it again. We
Speaker 2: love it when you share it in reviews. It lets
Speaker 2: us know you're listening and we're desperate to know what
Speaker 2: you think. So remember anything what's going on with Newton?
Speaker 2: Ask us we love it and guess what? All right, So,
Speaker 2: the final episode of Inside the Ton releases this week.
Speaker 2: Subscribe now so you're alerted as soon as it drops.
Speaker 2: Oh wait, did I mention it's all about Colin Bridgerton,
Speaker 2: the most eligible bachelor of the season. You're not gonna
Speaker 2: want to miss This.
Speaker 1: Bridgerton. The official podcast is produced by Shondaland Audio and
Speaker 1: Wonder Media Network. This show is executive produced by Sandy Bailey,
Speaker 1: Alex Alcea, Lauren Homan, Jenny Kaplan, and Emily Rudder. Our
Speaker 1: producers are Sarah Schleid, Edie Allard, and Carmen Borca Carrio.
Speaker 1: This episode is edited by Jenny Kaplan and Emily Rudder.
Speaker 1: Our associate producers are Lauren Williams and Akia mcnight. If
Speaker 1: you haven't finished binging Bridgerton, please head to Netflix so
Speaker 1: you can enjoy these spoilers with us each week. For
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