The 'Bridgerton' star teases what to expect from season 2 of the hit Netflix series.
Adjoa Andoh is spilling the Bridgerton tea!
The British actress portrays Lady Danbury on the hit Netflix series, and opened up to ET's Rachel Smith about getting ready for the highly anticipated second season.
Shondaland's drama followed Daphne Bridgerton's (Phoebe Dynevor) entrance into the marriage market, which culminated with her and the Duke of Hastings Simon Basset (Regé-Jean Page) saying "I do" and welcoming a child. As production gets underway for season 2, Andoh, 58, teases that Daphne and Simon's future resembles Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's life.
"I really can't say too much nor would you expect me to, but I guess what we do know absolutely is that they're married now. It's a new married life and they have the baby, so there are all the vagaries of what that is like for young people with a new baby," Andoh explains. "I mean Harry and Meghan, what's it like when you have a new baby? How does it affect you when [you are] a young couple with a new baby?"
"I just think we're going to see how Phoebe and Rege's characters, Daphne and Simon, navigate being in love, very in lust still, but with a new baby in their lives," she added. "Having to navigate and negotiate that between each other, between their families and between their wider social circles. Yeah, it's going to be interesting...[And with Simon], how do you father when you haven't even fathered [or had a father]?"
Season 2 of Bridgerton will turn the focus to Daphne's older brother, Lord Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey), as did The Viscount Who Loved Me, the second book in Julia Quinn's series on which the show is based. Bailey previously told ET that Bridgerton's second season would be "convoluted and sexier."
"I would never argue with Johnathan Bailey, especially not around things to do with sexy because he is a very sexy man," Andoh expressed. "Let me tell you so, as Anthony Bridgerton, the eldest son, it's time for you Anthony! So if he says it's going to be sexy then he knows whereof he speaks because that boy's got to get hitched. So yeah, I don't think audiences will be disappointed, let's put it that way."
As for Lady Danbury's future? Andoh said her character has "her eye across everything." "That said, for me, she's a woman who's had to box and cox in her life, she's had to negotiate and navigate so she knows the skinny on everything. She's going to be in the mix with the skinny of what is occurring in the hitching area and the powers and shakers and the movers in the town. She will be all across that, so you will get to see some of that this season. And see some of her developing relationships as well."
It'll be a while until fans get to see more from the Bridgerton crew, as Andoh is just getting into costume fitting. But she did share that the wardrobe is even better than season 1!
"The costumes are ridiculous this season. They are stunning beyond stunning," she marveled. "I sometimes just want to go, 'That scene can't go that quick because nobody's going to get the full [effect] of the costume.' The detail, just the buttoning, the finish, the tailoring, the pucks and tucks. It's just honestly, I think, I’m pitching it here, I really think there needs to be a whole show about the costuming just to salute those extraordinary costume makers. They are unbelievable!"
And while COVID-19 filming protocol may be put in use, Andoh quipped that it won't affect the show's steamy scenes.
"I think season 2 will be full steam ahead, see what I did there? But all it means is COVID protocols have to be followed to the letter because one infection knocks a whole production out," she explained. "Nobody wants the production to stop, so everybody is, will be, being on their bestest, bestest behavior so that we can keep everything going. I don't think the creators of the show want to lose any of the joy and the richness for season 2. If anything they want to just beef it up, make it more fabulous than ever, so that's my hope."
Andoh, meanwhile, is currently nominated for a 2021 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama for her role in Bridgerton. The actress called being nominated "the highest honor."
"The first play published by a Black woman was a commission by the NAACP. The woman was Angelina Weld Grimké, it was commissioned in 1916, it's a beautiful play. It's called Rachel," Andoh expressed. "And I am really conscious that I wouldn't be sitting here, being an actor doing the work that I do with the freedoms that I have as an actor, as a woman of color, feeling supported, loved and legally represented and protected without the work of the NAACP. So for me, this award it's like the highest honor that anyone could nominate me for because without them there is no us."
The show is also nominated for Outstanding Drama Series, while Page also received a nod for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series. The cast also received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.
If Andoh or the show wins any of their honors, she acknowledged that their celebrations "won't be big." "We won't be able to celebrate in the way that we will but, you know, we all know that and we're slowly shifting and we'll slowly get back into the swing of things as the vaccine rolls out and we have a better understanding of how to make it all go [away]," she said.
Up next for Andoh is a role in season 2 of The Witcher. "I’m playing a character named Nenneke in Witcher," she said, before sharing, "I’m touching wood right now as we speak. Do you have that thing [where] you just touch wood, knock on wood, your luck is good at the moment, just don't get too comfortable there? Enjoy it while it lasts."
For more on Bridgerton, watch below. The 2021 NAACP Image Awards air Saturday at 8 p.m. on BET.
Tune into Entertainment Tonight on Friday (check your local listings here!) for more from Andoh.
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