This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine.
India Amarteifio had to dig deep in order to play Bethany Krall. Her character may or may not have murdered her mother, might or might not be able to prophesy the future, perhaps is key to a shadowy, global conspiracy, and is definitely being held indefinitely in a psychiatric hospital (either because she’s dangerous or the victim of a miscarriage of justice).
We first meet 17-year-old Bethany, at the same time as Dr Gabs Fox (Ruth Madeley) does, but the teenager is preceded by her scary reputation.
Bethany flips between bristling menace and playful flirtation. Underneath both is barely contained rage.
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“I totally understand her anger,” Amarteifio, who is 24, says. “At her age, I was absolutely raging all the time.
“At the most minor of problems, I was like, ‘But this isn’t right!’ As an adult, I look at the situation she’s in and I would find it difficult and confusing and incredibly hard to handle. So to handle it as a child, as a teenager, is terrifying – and that terror can manifest as rage.”
At turns malevolent, manipulative, lost and vulnerable, Bethany is certainly an intense character and Amarteifio delivers a great performance – although it made an impact, the actor admits.
“We had really long days of sitting in the studio, continuously talking about very dark topics and themes, and me having to sit in my brain and think like her was really difficult. I really struggled with that as I’m quite an empath and I think I take on a lot of emotion.”
So what appealed to her about the show? “It’s all about the character rather than my exterior, and I’ve not really seen a person of colour playing a role like Bethany without it being about race,” she says.
This chimes with another of Amarteifio’s roles: the young queen in Bridgerton spin-off Queen Charlotte. “Queen Charlotte explained why Bridgerton is multi-racial and I found it really important, as a viewer of the show, to ask, ‘So we’re just not going to address race at all. Is that weird?’ and to have an answer: ‘Actually, it’s not weird.’ Because sometimes it’s nice to just watch people fall in love.”
Are Bridgerton and The Rapture “post-race” then? “Whenever I hear people say, ‘I don’t see race’ or ‘I don’t see colour,’ I know it genuinely does come from a good place, but there are still massive inequalities between different races so its vital that we keep talking about it.”
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