Go Behind the Scenes of Queen Charlotte with Sam Clemmett
Sam Clemmett’s been hankering to be a part of the Bridgerton world. “My relationship to Bridgerton started when I read for the first season back in 2019,” the actor says. “I think since then, I’ve read for four or five characters, so when this part came around and I finally got the job, I felt like it was really my time.”
The part in question is that of Brimsley, the Queen’s right hand man on Bridgerton, who Clemmett portrays a younger version of in the new series, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, streaming now.
“It’s such a fun, witty, sexy, joyous series to be a part of that when I got the opportunity to learn who Brimsley was and play him, I grabbed it with both hands,” says Clemmett, a veteran of films including Cherry and The War Below as well as Broadway’s Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. “He has dedicated himself to the Crown, and that was my way into him as a character. It was a wonderful time.”
Here, Clemmett opens his personal camera roll to T&C to share a behind-the-scenes look at Queen Charlotte and the moments that didn’t make it on screen.
"I wanted to document what it meant to get into the role of Brimsley every day. My hair and makeup person was the first face I saw every day; she had a great vision for all of the characters, and she made my job so much easier. Without her, my days wouldn’t have been so easy. In the beginning of each week, I’d be in the chair for about an hour, but every other day it’d be about 30 minutes. Then I’d get into costume, have a bit of breakfast, and go into rehearsal. The guys had it a lot easier than the ladies, who had to wear big dresses and those amazing wigs."
"I’m obsessed with dogs, so when I was told I’d be looking after the Queen’s dog, I was delighted. Me and this little Pomeranian called Victoria—who, at the beginning of the shoot, was only about 15 weeks old—really bonded, even though she steals all of my scenes. She was the most well-behaved puppy I’ve ever met."
"This is Belton House, way up in the north. We were meant to go to this location a few times, but for scheduling reasons it was pushed until we did a full two and a half weeks there. We did scenes from episodes one, two, and three as well as later episodes, so we all had to go back in our minds to those earlier scenes. And it had the most beautiful grounds, with this luscious greenery that was so wonderfully designed."
"Here we are halfway through the shoot. It was just the four of us on set that day, I believe we were in a stately home up in Hertfordshire, and our dialect coach was in the room with us. She said, 'you look adorable, let me take a picture.' So, we decided not to do any work and to take pictures instead."
"This was our last night on location at Blenheim Palace, which plays the Queen’s residence on the show. We had a long night shoot, until about 4 am, and I captured this moment of our director, Tom Verica, watching this beautiful scene between Corey Mylchreest and India Amarteifio. He looked so epic with the fire burning nearby, and the whole thing felt monumental, so I wanted to take a photo of the man helming our ship."
"We had a lot of second unit shooting throughout the series, moments when it was just pickup shots or no dialogue. Someone told me to go play with the clapboard before we started shooting and so I did; this particular shot ended up in our bloopers reel."
"When we were up north toward the end of the shoot, we had this house between the four of us, so we decided to host a bit of a gathering. We cooked a barbecue and had drinks out on the front lawn. India had a disposable camera, and she was taking photos; this is one of them."
"This is the first picture that India and I took together, you might call it the birth of our relationship as Queen Charlotte and Brimsley."
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