The frilly, frothy world of Bridgerton is full of types: the blushing ingenue, the dashing leading man, the scheming mother, the sultry widow. For the first two seasons, Bessie Carter was relegated to the role of sneering (step)sister. As Prudence Featherington, the older sister of wallflower Penelope (Nicola Coughlan), Prudence was all sleeves and sly put-downs. In the third season, however, Prudence has matured – in her own way.

“The Cinderella-esque ugly stepsister act was starting to get old,” Carter tells us. “I think everyone wanted something to shift – especially Prudence.” For one thing, Prudence is now a married woman, having settled down (perhaps in marital contentment rather than bliss) with Harry Dankworth (James Phoon).

As a married woman, Prudence has taken on a daunting new responsibility: she and the third Featherington sister, Philippa (Harriet Cains), have been tasked by their mother with producing a Featherington heir so their family can maintain control of their estate. 

After two seasons of an always-hilarious mean girl act, Prudence has become a little vulnerable. “Do you think babies simply appear in your womb? You must be familiar with each other often to create one,” her single-minded mother pesters her. “It flattens my hair,” whines Prudence.

Later, she confesses she doesn’t always “like” it, making way for Bridgerton’s most awkward, and perhaps most real sex scene yet. “Sex is a really complicated, vulnerable thing – it isn’t simple. It isn’t always steamy and immediate and fluid the first time you do it,” says Carter, adding, “I feel really proud to be part of that little moment of the show.”

Though Bridgerton may be Carter’s main claim to fame these days, she also starred in Dear Octopus at the National Theatre earlier this year. The play, written by I Capture The Castle’s Dodi Smith in 1938, follows four generations of the Randolph family as they reconvene for one weekend at the family home. As the matriarch’s companion, Fenny, Carter shed her mean girl act and embodied a wallflower dealing with her own unrequited love story; in fact, the character is not all that dissimilar to Prudence’s sister (and the star of this season of Bridgerton) Penelope Featherington.

It was at the theatre that Carter truly felt at home. “I grew up in London and I’ve been going to the National since I was two years old,” she says. In fact, her parents (British acting royalty, Imelda Staunton and Jim Carter) met in the very same rehearsal room where she prepared for Dear Octopus. 

The play will be available for streaming on National Theatre at Home from July 12.

We spoke to Carter about being part of the Bridgerton family and working at the National Theatre.

How has returning to the Bridgerton family been for the third series?

It really feels like the third year of drama school. Like, Here we are again! You arrive and you see all the familiar faces. But then with the new additions who come in like James [Phoon, who plays her on-screen husband] or Sam Phillips [who plays Lord Debling], that’s really nice, because there’s this new fresh energy. It reminds you how lucky you are to be in this big, amazing job.

It seems you’ve had a lot more nuance to play with when it comes to Prudence this season.

I loved what I got to do with her this year. The Cinderella-esque ugly stepsister act was starting to get old. I think everyone wanted something to shift – especially Prudence! To meet her this year with this new husband and to watch her get to grips with what it’s like to be married and what’s expected of her was just really funny. 

I did feel for Prudence when put in this position of being forced to produce an heir. There was a tinge of real darkness beneath the humour.

“Real” isn’t a word that we often use alongside Bridgeton – the show is heightened for a reason, to let people escape and to dream in colour and in texture. But finding truth is something I have to do as an actor. Sex is a really complicated, vulnerable thing – it isn’t simple. It isn’t always steamy and immediate and fluid the first time you do it. That’s a lie. So when I read Prudence’s sex scene, I think I added in the swatting his hand away. It was important to play that truthfully because I was aware that there hadn’t yet been a sex scene in Bridgerton that looked at sex in this way. It’s always been quite steamy – and that’s brilliant and great, but there are also other sides to sex. And I feel really proud to be part of that little moment of the show.

Prudence’s makeout session during the hot air balloon exhibition sets the wheels in motion for that dramatic accident and for Colin to see Penelope in a new light.

It’s funny you say that because I remember on the day, I was like, Are they not going to cut back to us? But you’re right! That clumsy little snog does lead to that Pirates Of The Caribbean moment with the men sexily pulling on the rope. That was a really funny day on set with all the men running through the crowd, ripping their things off! I don’t know what it is, but men in unison doing something with their arms is quite an archaic, attractive thing.

It’s such a popular show that has generated so much discussion and so many memes on social media. Do you pay any attention to all of that?

I tried tonot pay attention to it. I had a very strange time when it first came out in 2020. I had a few followers on Instagram and then it went to quite a few more. It was just a very surreal time because we were locked in and it was incredibly easy to just sit and scroll on my phone. In the last couple of years, I’ve started waking up to the danger of it. My job finished the day I wrapped in March 2023, so I don’t want to tune in too much.

Let’s talk about Dear Octopus, which recently ran at the National and is coming to streaming on National Theatre at Home in July. 

The mad thing is, Dear Octopus is coming out on National Theatre at Home with another play, Till The Stars Come Down, which has Ruby Stokes, who was the original Francesca Bridgeton, and Lorraine Ashbourne, who plays Varley [the Featheringtons’ housekeeper]. So, there was a time where we were all in the building at the same time. I love actors when they come back to theatre because, in my opinion, theatre is the real deal. It’s such a discipline. With theatre, you have to turn up every day and be strong, physically and vocally. It was really nice to know that James, Ruby, Lorraine and I were all sort of treading the boards.

It’s lovely that Bridgerton is filled with these amazing stage actors.

There are so many. Like Golda [Rosheuvel, who plays Queen Charlotte], I’d seen her in two or three plays before we started Bridgeton. And Luke Thompson [Benedict Bridgerton] – I remember loving him; I saw him in King Lear with Ian McKellen in the West End ages ago. I remember thinking, Oh my god, he’s absolutely incredible. And then for us all to be in the same rehearsal room – because we had the boot camp for a week before series one. Yeah, they’ve really got a lot of trusty English theatre actors.

It must have been such a joy to work at the National.

​​It was honestly, to this day, my favourite job of all time. I grew up in London and I’ve been going to the National since I was two years old. My parents [Imelda Staunton and Jim Carter] are both actors and they met there in 1982 working on Guys and Dolls. I was actually rehearsing in the very room where they met, on the very day that they met. It’s a dream. And it’s such a nice community. 

Dear Octopus is a gorgeous play. I saw it recently with my family. It’s such a beautiful, heartbreaking look at the quiet tragedy of time passing within a family and all that entails.

You were brave to go with your family! No matter where you sit in a family, there’s something to relate to in it. I think if I ever watched it, I would have found it really heartbreaking. I just find parents getting older really sad. That’s one of my ‘can’t go there – can’t even think about it’ things. But it’s such a hidden gem of a play. And also has great parts for women.

You played Fenny in the play, who couldn’t be more different to Prudence. She has a love story very similar to Penelope’s story with Colin in this season of Bridgerton.

I loved playing her because I never get to play parts like that – I always have to be mean! She’s very much part of the furniture. And just like Penelope, she is given a tiny little glimmer of hope that there could be something more and then she has to take it upon herself to choose to be brave and choose to be honest. Fenny and Nicholas are the active storyline, I suppose, because a lot of the play is actually contemplating the past or contemplating the future in these philosophical, beautiful conversations. The way it ends for Fenny and Nicholas, the feminist in me was like: ‘No, he’s shit! Don’t go weak at the knees!’ And then I thought, ‘Actually, bloody hell, we need a happy ending.’ I mean how nice is it to think that you could end up with the guy you fancied for 10 years? And I’ve been saying the same thing about the Colin and Penelope series. For me, it’s also about being honest. I think we live in a world where we really all are scared and we’re not taught how to be honest. And honesty is the key in everything. And that’s what I love about this Bridgerton series, too.

Bridgerton season 3, part 1 is currently streaming on Netflix.

Dear Octopus comes to National Theatre at Home on 12 July.

Images: Joseph Sinclair; Netflix; Marc Brenner