India Amarteifio: The Breakthrough Of A Bridgerton Star

0:00You know, people say like jump out of a plane and you'll never be scared. And that was my jumping out of a plane. Queen Charlotte, I think, is why ultimately I'm here. How did it change your life? They focus purely on intimacy in scenes. So sex scenes, physical contact is involved, and it also creates a better environment for you to create steamier scenes, basically. Let's say you're my intimacy coordinator. What would you tell me? Right now? Yeah, right now. India Amarteyfo is a world-leading actress is known for her role as young Queen Charlotte in Netflix smash hit series Queen Charlotte, A Bridgerton Story.

0:37She began her career as a child actor in London, West End shows The Lion King and Matilda the Musical, and later appearances in British television series Doctor Who and Sex Education. She was awarded the 2024 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress and is one of this year's Forbes 30 Under 30. Talent very much. Yes, you have to have some, maybe like 20%. but you have to be in the right place, the right time, you know, the right contacts, the right look, the right age. The reason why I put myself through all the failure, which is 95 % of the time, is because hopefully that 5%, I'm going to have the most amazing time, which it always is.

1:19After Queen Charlotte, it gave me the confidence. I never thought I could do anything like that at all. I think what I'm most nervous for is like, was that the peak? I've never ever been concerned by the public image side at all. That's so healthy and unusual for most actors. What would you advise your younger self?

1:46I would say...

1:55India. Hello. Hello. People might have an idea of who you are based on the work you do, but how would you describe yourself? I would say I'm really introverted. Yeah, a massive homebody. It takes a while for anyone to get me out of the house. um super driven maybe slightly too pragmatic about general life but I think I've always been like that in terms of just having a very strict routine and not swaying too much away from that day to day were you always like this yeah always have been since I was a kid even to like what I eat pretty much similar sort of stuff every day um same routine I like to exercise the same time every day I like to go out the same you know I really do well on a routine certain hours in the day when I sleep and wake up it's always always been like that since I was a baby apparently so interesting how does this correlate to your career of choice so since you were a young kid at the age of nine you first had contact with the acting industry yeah um you were part of the lion king if i'm correct yeah walk me through those years um was acting like a game for you back then something to have fun with or a career of choice already I wouldn't say a career of choice at all I still don't see my job as a job like such a typical actor response but it when you are in your element of filming or whatever you're doing and using your craft it doesn't feel like work because it's what is fueling you as a human it's my creative outlet and my job so it's kind of like a merging of the two um I just did it because I felt this utter sense of release and relaxation of being so at liberty to just express yourself without consequence I feel like sometimes in society now if you I don't know especially British culture if you start crying or you exude like complete happiness people often can kind of look at you in a in a bit of an odd way of of needing to control that when you're on stage or when you're on camera you are kind of allowed to and made to be at your highest level of emotion so I didn't feel like anyone was going to take that away and say stop crying or don't why are you so happy for oh don't be sad you know brighten up you have to you're allowed to to do that and it's such a freeing kind of expressive emotion that I think it's just been very helpful as a kid and as an adult to have that.

4:59This is so beautiful to listen because a lot of people, I mean, or the people that are lucky in life, they get to discover what they love. But then at some point, that love fades for a particular profession. But you've been doing this since the age of nine and now you're 23. So that's 14 years. So you still don't feel like this is a job whatsoever. you're still deeply in love with the profession. Yeah, yeah. And it makes me nervous sometimes that it has been a hobby for so long because I know that, you know, people pick up horse riding or karate and they have it as a child and then real life gets in the way or, you know, romantic relationships get involved and their focus is kind of left.

5:50Artists change. Exactly. Whereas for me, it's always been performing. I did read or listen to a podcast at some point about kind of how important it is to keep your child, your childhood qualities and like just continuing to play as a human and as an adult, because you have that connection to your roots, but also you then are allowing that, that inner child to kind of come through and to feed that. So maybe it's something in that it's like, it feels like very much a connection to when I was most happiest and free as a kid. it's also just something I love and love to watch. I think our parents and how they educate us they really influence what we end up doing in life.

6:32Yes. So you choose to be to become an actor at the age of nine. How did your parents support this career? They were super with me. I never I didn't have any feedback that was negative at all I think because they knew that I was enjoying what I was doing I wasn't pushed by either of them I was allowed to kind of play and I was never also I think something I have to really give credit to both my parents about I was never told to be quiet or to stop or to you know if you're singing too loudly your parents shut up never any of that it was always they wanted me to do it so I felt like exactly yeah they always wanted me to be myself and to never try and fit into a category and okay cool someone might be calling me annoying or weird, but it was something that they knew I was finding joy in.

7:22So I've always felt like I had their backing and support, which I think, as you said, having that parental guidance and how that shapes you as a kid as well is major to then how you take that as an adult. And then they supported you through drama school from the age of 11 all the way until I think it was 2020. Yes. How useful is for an aspiring actor to attend drama school?

7:51I would say it's pretty subjective and very personal. What do you want to get out of it? For me, the training was imperative. More the discipline of having a routine, knowing what's expected of you on a set or in a class or how to take a script. So to say I get like a 118-page script for a film. What do I do with that? Okay, I can learn the lines. but I need to have the technique and the skills to be able to find scene objectives and to be able to contextualize a period piece for instance so it's all of the little things. Do they give you like tips and methodologies? Yeah. Okay so which one is one that you think might be interesting for our audience like how do you memorize all those lines is there like a tip?

8:38Not really for me I find music really helpful so I'll. To memorize? Yeah yeah yeah I'll often listen to like a song it's kind of like synesthesia type thing it's like i listen to a song and i'll remember a line or i remember a pay like a scene and i'll remember that i listened to that song whilst i learned that scene so i remember the lines very everyone has their own little thing that's kind of how i do it or just your thing i think my thing i've no idea i've yet to find someone else but um i know music is very kind of widely used in in acting but again yeah it goes back to you have to find some some people find that by themselves some people find that through school I think for me it was a mixture of both I was lucky that I was working as a kid so I was surrounded by lots of different actors who had trained who hadn't trained um who had their own techniques and you can kind of steal That looks really cool.

9:33I'll take that from you. And that's kind of how you come about to find how you want to craft your craft. It's not accessible for everyone, drama school. It's incredibly expensive. I was fortunate that I got pretty much full bursaries for both the schools that I attended to, full scholarships. Casting directors, do they prefer actors with this experience?

10:01um yes and no i think if you're starting out and you've got a completely blank cv and they can see that you've trained at a reputable school they're going to have more trust and maybe more faith than someone who hasn't it's always going to be like that it's the same when you want to get a job in the very beginning or even when if you want to start your your first business when you're going from zero to one and there is nothing to prove who you are and validating you as a professional, the first thing that they can look at is your academic experience. And if you have none, then you're really a blank piece of paper.

10:36And that's probably too much of a risk for anyone to take. 100%. Some people do. I mean, we've got actors who have probably EGOTs and Academy Award winners who had nothing and people took a chance on them. But I feel like nowadays there's so much at stake with production companies that there's so much money and a lot of them are conglomerates. They don't have that risk taking ability as much anymore unless you're an independent filmmaker. But do you feel also like there is more competition when it comes to acting than before? So perhaps if you go back 20, 30, 40 years ago, there were less actors and also there were less drama schools, right?

11:13So the acting level of everyone was more or less the same because they were learning on the go. But right now I feel like also with athletes, they get trained so early on and they perfect the technique so much. So they're just pushing the levels. And if you're just not at that level, it's going to be very hard for you to compete with them. 100%. 100%. I think also as well, the industry at the moment is so oversaturated. I mean, we've got Amazon, Disney, Netflix, all these streamers alongside broadcasting channels. There's so much content. So they need new influxes of new talent to kind of keep audiences excited, which I completely understand.

11:53I do worry sometimes that we're maybe losing the quality of what we're producing. I think we are. Of course. It's like if there's too much supply. Yeah. Not everything could be quality. No, there's too much demand, but there's not maybe enough attention on the supply of what we're putting out. Yeah, that's my only concern. But it's so... I think they're favoring quantity and frequency of content over quality. 100%. 100 % yeah yeah do you feel like you've ever do you ever do you ever feel like you've missed on a childhood because you've been working since you were very young and definitely you didn't have a normal upbringing no never no not really I mean my my family aren't in the industry so I think I was lucky that I was able to do what I wanted to do have these crazy experiences and then come home and like just have a normal life with my family who were not in the limelight um maybe it would be different if my family were in the same industry as me because we'd be talking about at home and our extra activities as as a family would be doing I don't know workshop I don't know what people do workshops or things you know going to but like I was just going to the park with my friends and you know spending time with my family in the countryside I think I had a really good balance um I often think sometimes because I did miss a lot of school in like the formative years I think I've only really made up for that recently by reading more like actual like books because you miss you know grammar and um basic maths and things so I have these weird chunks where I can like do algebra fine.

13:37Should we test you now? No thank you not right now um but like yeah i can i can do weird things okay but then like sometimes performative stuff is just really not there at all um that's the only thing i think sometimes and when you chose so you choose acting as your career yeah of choice a lot of people when they choose their professional path they have an end goal or a definition of success for that particular profession so a lawyer might want to become a partner at some point right so I'm studying law because you know maybe when I'm 40 and 50 I want to become a partner and my life would be better for whatever reason yeah um did you have a target or a definition of success when it comes to acting um

14:31probably just sustainable work as in being hired consistently staying inconsistent that's how you define success in your yeah because i know how difficult it is to have that a lot of these awards um i think are a lot of people's end goal when i win an oscar i've made it a lot of people so when you were a kid you're telling me that your end goal was to have frequent jobs yeah because yeah because i loved it so much i was i was i've never ever being concerned by the public image side at all. That's so healthy and unusual for most actors. I don't know. I mean, at least my friends who I've met, I would say the people that I would count as like my friends in the industry.

15:19I think most actors really don't like the public image side because we are pretty much introverted. Yes, we like being expressive in front of the camera, but that's why we do it, because we can come home and just kind of cocoon ourselves. So it was never something that I ever wanted at all I think it's a byproduct and it has to happen in order to create your career and to to move it in the trajectory that you would like it to go in but um yeah it was honestly it was never anything I considered it was it was just to I want to be doing this all the time because I love it I don't know if you have the same I don't know if you had like a particular goal in mind or you just were like we just want to keep growing and growing and growing i don't know how it works and oh uh that's a tough question i did have a particular goal in mind which was which was like a sort of stepping stone for the next goal right okay so it was like the overall goal was fragmented in like mini goals but there was always an end and then like sort of vision that i had for where i wanted to be okay at a professional level okay how would you define a breakthrough because i think that's a word that it's like a taboo word that it's constantly being used in your industry how do you define breakthrough a role or a person that allows you to be seen i think ultimately it's a way to grow your business and to to basically say hello this is me you've maybe been missing me however for however long or i'm super new to this this is the first role I've ever landed and I wasn't expecting this kind of success and here I am Queen Charlotte I think is is why ultimately I'm here and why I've I've been able to have opportunities I have had in the last three years how did it change your life in every way honestly in every way um career wise it's it's put me in a completely different category i was before i was only really auditioning for like supporting roles um and the best friend or the daughter so for me to now be seen as a leading woman has completely elevated my own expectations of myself um my financial situation is very different i grew up um with a uh mum on kind of like general welfare or sort of government benefits we had like um a very different lifestyle to one that I'm able to have now.

17:55And I don't necessarily have financial worry. I mean, we all have financial worries, but like I'm not going to bed necessarily worried about my next meal, which is a massive blessing. And also just my general life, going out day to day. I have a hat on for a reason, but like I have to wear hats and sunglasses if I really don't want to be recognized. If I'm say, for instance, hanging out with my family and I'm just wanting a family moment, there's always that element of um people knowing who i am so there's i want to say cons but there's pros and there are byproducts of having like such a an amazing breakthrough um i say i'm confused only with the breakthrough only because i know i will backtrack i probably it probably it is 100 like it's it's what has elevated my platform i think i just get nervous when people are like do you think this is your peak and i'm like i don't know it could be um that's i think what i'm I'm most nervous for it is like is there was that that was that the the peak um which I'm guessing no I don't know if I believe that but um it's hard it's hard to did you think this would come this quick in your career no not at all not at all I think this is due to luck hard work I think a lot of it honestly talent probably the bottom and that's not me trying to be humble I think I'm just haven't seen from my own eyes how this industry works and how so many different elements have to be right in order for the project to be right um talent very much yes you have to have some maybe like 20 but you have to be in the right place the right time you know the right contacts the right look the right age everything has to kind of like come into fruition i know you don't like math but we're on 20 of luck what about the other 80 if you were to split this in between hard work and uh being lucky i think hard work was 80 60 20 luck and i'm sure some people would flip that but I think I would like to think it's because I've I have just been going and I've also had the support the the back support the crew support of my family and my friends to push me to help me be determined um and the luck part was that I kind of looked like the lady that was playing the older counterpart of my part and that I was English maybe you know so thank you for your honesty no not at all

20:37so you are receiving three different benefits one of them is the initial purpose that drew you to become an actor which is acting regularly right now you're getting more votes the second one is financial security and then the third one is status or fame on these two last ones yeah is this something that if right now i take them away from you you can live without them and try to be honest with me 100 well like one i i would maybe not the money but i would give the the the fame and the public image side to you now for free it doesn't fuel me at all it's as i said it's a byproduct of the job and the only reason I say maybe not the money is because I've been in a position where I haven't had any at all and I don't really want to have that again and I think that's fine to say for people that haven't come from anything and know what it's like to be worried for your parents or for yourself about general day-to-day expenses that is not a feeling that I miss a feeling I miss is being at liberty to go out with my friends to any concert you can't anyway I can but I know that when I go out there is always a 90 % possibility that I'll have pitch taken or see people which I don't have a problem with at all like these are the people that at the end of the day have created this platform for me and who have watched the show and I'm so grateful for them but you know it's a bit like if you were going to go out with your friends you always have to be a little bit aware that you know people might be perceiving you in a certain way that you don't want them to or you just don't really want you're just wanting to be your complete self and we will present differently to different people um that part i would 100 give to you yeah i like i like the fact that i can speak to people who have watched the show like i love that i can talk to someone in brazil i can talk to someone in spain i can wherever around the world I can speak to these people and see it in a lifetime.

22:48But it's very overwhelming. For an introvert, it's very overwhelming. It's very refreshing to hear the truth once in a while because a lot of people would give so much away to have the following that you have and to have the level of, let's say, fame, relevance that you have. but once you experience it as you as you're experiencing it now then you get to realize what are the things that matter to you in life and what are the things that actually are going to make you happy and I personally believe that there is nothing on the outside that can ever feel a void that is on the inside and that's social media that's that external validation that comes with Instagram, with TikTok.

23:39So I do appreciate your honesty on that. Oh, of course. Let's go back to acting. What's the funniest thing you've ever experienced on set? The funniest thing? I think I'm quite boring on a set. Once I'm there, this is the best thing ever. I'm going to be so well behaved. I was deputy head girl at my old school. deputy I have to be very careful with that not a girl so I feel like I take things very seriously so I see a lot of stuff and I'm always like I want to join him um maybe like on on um on Queen Charlotte our director Tom Verica he would he would pull pranks so he'd get like we'd be in a really intense scene then he'd get the the other um like your counterpart to do something like completely random and you kind of have to react to that it's a bit sadistic but now I think about it But, um, he'd, he'd get, he'd get like my co-star to like say a line that was just like, he would just say himself as my co-star or like he, we would be walking down the, um, like a corridor with, um, Sam who plays Brimsley's, um, plays one of the, um, kind of one of the, the housekeepers of the house of the palace.

24:57and Tom I would hear him in my ear just like can you just like walk in a circle just keep walking around see if he'll follow you and I'm like he's just kind of walking around and Sam just walking around I'm like we've been doing this for 20 minutes uh I don't know how much this is costing but um just things like that and I think I look back now and it keeps morale up it just it makes everything you're reminded that yeah okay days are long but you're doing what you love like this is so exciting um what do you do if you or when you forget a line do you just improv or you do it again depends who you're working with shonda is very strict on lines um so no improv but some some people are very happy for you to kind of take it where you want and where you feel you normally would just pause have a little think try and do the scene again if you come to the same you can kind of line or you can um just look around and someone will usually feed it in from wherever they they are in in the the crowd um just depends and are you like embarrassed if that happens to you often and that like sort of blocks you initially at the beginning i feel like that would happen to me no yeah but like my brain would be like don't forget about it don't forget about it and then by definition i'm gonna forget about it everyone does it that every everyone does it and it's also So it's always like your first scene where you're like, I've worked so hard.

26:19I know all my lines. I'm going to make such a good impression. And then it's literally like, yeah, you've learned nothing. Again, maybe drama school and experience gives you the time and the techniques to give you those cooling, calming techniques to get your brain back in the game. How many lines can you memorize in one goal? like if you translate that into minutes like can you like like can you memorize something for like five minutes well like a scene yeah yeah i mean if you're doing um if you're doing a play sometimes you're on a you're on stage for the whole time for under two hours it's two hours of scripts of of speaking you have to memorize yeah but they're in and out right and you can like sort of check them again i think the longest scene i've done was maybe 10 minutes it would be queen charlotte they were big belter scenes yeah and they're cutting in between but you're there the whole time and sometimes it's you know a page of dialogue and then your scene partner has one line and then another page for you it's really dependent but i would say do you find that hard towards the end no because we got into a rhythm of just being like right we've got 14 page script tomorrow 14 page scene gotta get it done we've got like three hours to learn this before bed um it can be quite scary at the beginning to see so many lines uh and with a play also as well you kind of break you do it in chunks you don't learn it all together so i think i feel like i'm getting better at that and then how do you go back to being yourself at the end of the day because you're playing this character and you're trying to embody her feelings her mindset do you go back home and feel like queen charlotte sometimes please grab me this sometimes i mean i lived she was the longest character that i've ever lived with and also she felt like the most human i thought as i said before i was only ever playing the best friend so that i'd really created a whole other person so did for a while especially after i wrapped i was like i feel like i need to talk like this walk around because it's that became the norm so did it took a while to kind of come out of it um but at the end of the day normally I'd cook something really bland and basic.

28:35I quite like just normal. Food is pretty much fuel for me, not the other way around. Oh no, don't tell me that. I am, yeah, I just eat because I have to. I was loving the conversation until now. You're like, next! Who do we have next? And how do you prepare for a role? Give me like the simple tips that anyone can understand. Simple tips. I will read all the scripts. I will write down the kind of the brief of every scene not of the scene, every script so I know what's going on I will then join all of my scenes together from every single script from every single episode so that I have a through line as to where my character is I'll put in any I'll make things up basically in between where the writer hasn't written what they did between that scene and that scene I'll make that up I'll learn the lines create a character as I'm learning the lines I'll find kind of like mannerisms in the character as I'm learning the lines.

29:36Can you give me one from Queen Charlotte? I mean, that pretty much very easy. She always had her chin kind of a little bit pushed back. And then my articulation as well, my vocabulary was super heightened. So that was pretty easy. Can you talk to me like her for a bit? Do I not sound like her now? Is this not enough? I mean, it's not, it wasn't too dissimilar. It was just, I think sometimes I go a bit London, similar. Similar it would be, or similar, or like tea, water, straight. How long does the preparation take? It sounds long. That wasn't too long, to be fair. Because as I said, it wasn't too dissimilar from my own.

30:18I think we were in prep for about a month, which isn't very long at all.

30:29We're going to ask you a very deep question that is multi-layered. And I want you to be very honest. Okay. What is your relationship with failure?

30:45Not good, I wouldn't say. In certain aspects, definitely getting better. but I think I'm just I get nervous outside of acting I would say to try anything different because I feel like people hold me to and my family and my friends hold me to quite a high caliber just because of I think how I how I am as I said like the whole routine thing I think people have a very strong image of who I am and I'm someone who never fails and I'm always looking super together and my life's together and you know I've I've lived by myself and maybe I look to to people who still know me but to the outside that I have all of my together basically but I really don't at all you never failed 100 100 I mean before I got um Queen Charlotte it was between Queen Charlotte and this other project, which I won't name.

31:50But again, similar, equal roles, pretty, pretty big role, pretty, pretty big role. And I didn't get this job. And the, the weight of knowing that there was only one other person as well who was going for this role was crippling. It never made me feel like stopping. I just really doubted myself and I really doubted my ability i doubted the confidence that those people who were auditioning me had instilled because i was like well they said i'm one out of two or yeah one out of two people why wouldn't it go my way i've always been glass half full in that sense and when which is the majority of the time in acting it's a no like wow screw this screw that for i would say for like a day and then the business mindset kicks in and everything else kicks in and I I can see for real time I mean if I had got that role I would never have got Queen Charlotte so that failure did turn into something else and a lot of times you can't see how do you reset mentally from failures how do I reset mentally from failures I think go through it honestly there's no point trying trying to deny if you feel like you failed or you feel like you've been attacked or you feel like you've lost I think it's a part of a grievance isn't it of going through all the stages of feeling a bit down feeling a bit lost maybe um and then having that in yourself to be able to pick yourself back up to pick yourself yeah up again through you know looking back at what you've done looking at where you've come from from the beginning I think a lot of people forget the journey they've been on and i think that's important as well your age um why you're doing it most importantly you know i love what i do the reason why i put myself through all the failure which is 95 of the time is because hopefully that five percent i'm gonna have the most amazing time which it always is it's a weird weird i can tell why you're not good at math there we go what did I say 95 % of the time?

33:59And then the 5 % of the time. You're enjoying what you're doing. Yeah. Not maths. This is why I had to do acting. I've got nothing else. I believe that our relationship with failure, it's defined and rooted by our youth and how our parents raise us and different experiences at school from my understanding of what you're sharing your parents were very permissive so if you were failing they were fine with it yeah was that the case yeah was that also the case in drama school no at all were you penalized from failing or told off yeah it's very much get up and go mentality okay yeah so i didn't have the i didn't have the pressure at home if I didn't want to do anything that day there was never it was just okay cool you don't want to do that fine it was allowed that liberty but at school you had to be on top form you also had to be on top form if you wanted to be seen I wanted to be one of the best that's how it always works I wanted to be one of the favourites I wanted to be one of the best because that's when you get the most time with your teachers that's when they pay attention to you that's when they're going to nurture you even more it's just how it works if you're falling in the back teachers i for me at least they're why why would they spend that time with you if they they don't see that you are driven and you want to work okay cool you failed but like you're still going back that's the mentality that i had i was like i have to be seen by my teachers as one of the best to be pushed to be the best it's just how it works and was that because you wanted their validation or you just wanted for them to teach you more I just I just want Leia I just wanted to be wasn't necessarily them I just wanted to have the best shot at the opportunity I was given in any way I could and I saw how that worked I saw the maths of it all okay the people who are really pushing they don't necessarily have to be the best academically I was not one of the strongest at all and I still ended up being deputy head girl like it was because I a lot of it was because I was just determined and pushed did the extra classes did you know stayed back was I think a nice person yeah I think that's important because I've really that took as a bit like he was saying it's a less about the talent it's more about pushing I mean definitely the acting career is an uncertain job right um and it's an uncertain career.

36:37But I feel like, and then maybe correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel like most actors, they start acting quite young and they choose that career because when you're young, you're naive and your understanding of risk reward is very different. So I would find it harder to see an actor becoming an actor for the first time at the age of 40 or 50, because you are grown up enough to understand that life is not easy and there are other responsibilities you need to take um and in general your risk appetite will be lower but if you're young you're naive and you feel like everything is possible and definitely your math is in the wrong place and i think that's beautiful yeah i think that's beautiful i think that's powerful and i think that's when dreams can come true yeah and i think that's when you can make heaven on earth you don't need to be dead to be on heaven right which i think it's what you're living right now despite of you're not loving the fame you're doing exactly what you love yeah exactly and you've been doing it for quite a long time right now yeah it's a massive blessing i'm so grateful aside from the fame is there anything that you would change in your life changing my life

37:54not that i not that i know of i feel very very content i feel very satisfied i feel like there was a portion of my life where I did live a little bit too in my comfort zone and I was fine there but I was never growing I was never how does that look like in terms of pushing or what it looked like being in how did that look like so what were you not doing it's never taking risks I mean I know you could say my job is taking a risk but that is all I know it's very normal to me but outside of my job you know I didn't really go out didn't see friends I didn't I wasn't living as a 20 year old I was living as a 40 year old which is not problem but when you're 20 you know it's nice to go out it's nice to date it's nice to make new friends travel you weren't doing that none literally none of it I was so focused on my job and then I was seeing all my friends having fun and I'm having fun when I'm doing my job I'm also like maybe I want to do a bit of that but no that's going to distract from that but I think finding a healthy balance in having really amazing work life and the social friends life as well especially when you're in your 20s not only is beneficial to you as a human but also just like just having fun you're allowed to do that and also it's really helped me with my job because the more experiences I'm creating the more countries I'm visiting the more people I'm speaking to is aiding me to be able to create characters and emote and to be emotional and to have different references when I'm creating characters oh I remember when I oh and there's the scene where I'm in this restaurant with this like really amazing guy and it's so beautiful and we're in Italy I've been to Italy I can have those visions of what that's like with my partner and you know speaking to people who are super different to anyone in your own circle don't have that reference but if you go to again brazil a completely different culture lifestyle i can use that and that's informed me as to okay i can bring that into a character so it's it's all it's all important not only in a work scheme but just to make you a whole happy person when did you learn this probably after Queen Charlotte it gave me the confidence I never thought I could do anything like that at all and you know people say like jump out of a plane and you'll never be scared that was my jumping out of a plane not in a cringy way but if I could do that and I could lead a show at 20 I could do all these really kind of you know working with an intimacy coordinator and having to be super vulnerable I felt like I was talk to me about that what's an intimacy coordinator so intimacy coordinator is kind of like a director but they focus purely on intimacy in scenes so sex scenes um anything where it's kind of like you're you're vulnerable with another person a lot of um physical contact is involved um so it's just to protect you and your cast um and yourself and everyone involved and it also creates a better environment for you to create steamier scenes basically let's say you're my intimacy coordinator what would you tell me right now yeah right now if so you're wanting to create intimacy with your the person you're bringing onto the podcast sustain eye contact nodding active listening everything you're pretty much everything you're doing i would just be like you're doing a really good job um yeah it depends what you're what you're wanting but it's it's just she or he or Let's say I'm an actor and I'm about to perform a sex scene.

41:37Right. Right, so what should I do or not to do? Before, you would have had rehearsals for maybe like a week or two weeks before. So you rehearse the actual like fake intercourse? Yeah. Yeah, because it's... In front of people or alone or... Yeah, in front of people. In front of people. Pretty much. I think that... Is that uncomfortable? I think it would be more uncomfortable if it wasn't. Because then it, yeah, no, yeah, if it wasn't because then it's just like, okay, this is totally normal. This is so fine. And also you kind of have to get used to that when people are in the room because you have the camera, camera people there.

42:18What's the biggest lesson learned in that regard? Just to go full steam. You can't hold back because it's just so evident if you're holding back. you have to just it's either a hundred percent or nothing but how do you portray queen charlotte having sex and don't forget that it's not you having sex yeah well it's a completely different person it's you just have to basically again a bit like creating a character you then create different mannerisms that are totally different to your own so it's anything so you're having sex with an accent that's a very good way of describing it yeah basically that's actually yeah it's interesting exactly that no weird way okay um all right interesting um are you nervous in those scenes i was in the beginning i was really nervous in the beginning so i'm 20 as well like super just not experienced in the world and having to to do that with random people around because it was fairly early on to filming as well as it's pretty daunting um but the the more we kind of got into it but the more the more like we we went as the series progressed got it got easier because it's it's routine it's learned behavior it's okay this is really weird but we know what we need to do we've come to do a job and it is very similar to doing a dance i'm studying as a dancer so it's very similar kind of motion and movements you've shared with me that an important lesson you've learned in your journey is to find a sweet spot in between your work and your personal life aside from this lesson learned what's the greatest lesson you've learned so far in your life in your career?

44:13To look after yourself, probably. As in, yes, you have an amazing team of people, agents, parents, friends, PR. Evidently, yeah, evidently, but at the end of the day, it is you, and it's about you learning your boundaries and being firm as to what you're happy to compromise on, where you're happy to go, what's a firm boundary. Because I think as well, being young, being in the industry, but also just in life, being a woman, being a woman of colour, so many different ways in which you can be pushed and pulled in uncomfortable situations. And you will just say, yes, cool, yeah, cool. It's the whole mentality of you should do everything because it will aid your career or it will aid you as a person.

45:05Yeah, cool, I'll stay out really late for the week or I'll drink like hell and eat like shit and I'll go and work and just keep working, working, having a break. But there will be a point where your body's like, I can't do this. I've had that at a very young age. I don't want to do that again. So for me, it's about listening to myself and my inner clock and cool, friends are going out this night, you know, this evening. they're going to stay up till three o 'clock have you got that in you to sustain that right now yes no what have you got on next week which might mean that you're going to be affected by that tiredness and that whatever i don't drink either so having that alongside going out when people are lots of different things but i think staying again cliche staying true to how you're wanting to do things is really important.

45:59How can you determine who to trust? Time. But then even in time, I guess it can also show really scary things. I would say I haven't really gotten close to many people since Queen Charlotte. I've stayed majority with people who I've already been close to. I actually got into a relationship afterwards, which has been lovely. I'm looking very scared, but that's been really nice. But I knew him through a friend. So again, it's that trust element and a friend that I've known for my whole life. I've kept a very small circle. I've kept pretty much to like my original friends just because you just don't, you don't know.

46:45You really don't know. And you also don't know at any point, anything could, I would say that I don't really have anything to hide. but it's just your personal life. That's my main thing that I want to... That's very refreshing to listen because obviously you're young and many young people, if they become famous, they would want to meet other famous people and become friends with them. That was not the case for you? No, I have mutuals. I have people that, you know, I go to events and, oh my God, it's lovely to see you again. And I don't hang around with people from my industry at all. Yeah. if you could if you could give an advice to an aspiring actor what would you advise

47:34i'm trying to think of something that's not super cliche because i feel like it's the same what would you advise your younger self just to keep going but it's so easy to say because i'm where I am now. I think as long as you're doing it because you love it and you're not doing it for the byproduct of the financial security, of the accolades, of the public image side, you're doing it for the right reason. Because ultimately that is what's going to keep you going is your passion and your love for what you're doing. I think you just have to make sure that you're choosing this every day and you're choosing it because you love it.

48:16did you set yourself a sort of deadline so perhaps by the age of 30 if I didn't make it I'm going to do something else yeah did you have one yeah when 20 20 I was like yeah I think it was COVID and I hadn't worked I'd done a show I know I'd done a film in 2018 that came out 2019 no came out 2020 so it must have been yeah COVID and then COVID happened and I didn't work the whole time from there and I was at school and then I remember just I was um on a do you know the Jonathan Ross show yeah it's like a like a talk show I was I was a runner behind the scenes yes I do I do know so I was seeing meeting all these people as a talent runner said hi how you doing and getting their drink getting their fin and it just felt so far away from where I was at that point I just remember sitting in the car with my mum like I'm gonna be a lawyer decided I'm gonna be a lawyer I'm gonna go I've still got time go to law school this just isn't for me because if it was for me okay COVID's finished now but I would be getting consistent work and obviously her reaction was of if you want to do that that's fine but I think you would be wasting your potential at such a young age and uh you should absolutely keep going you're 20 um that's a very unusual answer for a mom yeah I would imagine that the typical answer would be well my daughter is on her what 20s early 20s yeah and she wants to become a lawyer because the acting career is not working yeah that sounds like a safer choice to me right but yet your mom being very open-minded and permissive she believed in you which is I think fantastic and obviously paid off yeah so do you think that that was the reason why you didn't quit yeah probably and I had I was very fortunate I had amazing agents who were I was getting auditions just was never landing and I think I was constantly on the phone to my agent sorry Chris and I was just all the time is there you know is there anything any news any updates no no no it's just the constant no of it all I think I just was already getting tired of and I thought if I'm getting tired of this at 1920 what is the longevity of me being in this career now I've learned that is just how it works I kind of that is that is the that is kind of how acting works you might have massive stints off then you do a massive job massive job massive job small job massive stint off like it's just the unroutine of it all well not that was there a no that really impacted you emotionally

51:08yeah but I was about I think I was about 10 and I auditioned for this I think it was um CBBC which is like a kids BBC show and it's between me and this other girl um for this for the series lead role and again it was the first time that I'd auditioned for a lead role um also being like a person of color it was massive oh my gosh they're gonna have a little mixed race girl on telly I've never seen this this is amazing that I didn't get it and I think because I'd been in the auditions I'd really believed in my head this was gonna be my role and I could really see it and then I got the no I think that was probably one of the first times where I was like oh this is what it's like okay that really hurt really hurt am I not good enough I really want to I just want to be good I just want to be seen I want to do what I want to do and yeah that I still think about that sometimes but I think it is massively it's just it is everything is a lesson and it never feels like it in the moment but there is there has to be I'm a firm believer in a read like there's a reason you were 10 when did that feel like a lesson how long after 15 16 years honestly yes because you're a kid as well you've not got that I guess the neuroplasticity to think oh this might be for a reason or the business mindset hasn't kicked in at 10 because you're 10 um yeah I would say it took a like a very long time still does sometimes you know and why lawyer why would you want why did you want to become a lawyer which is profoundly different than i think so different um it was a very quick very quick thought by the way um but i think it was again it's a job with such high caliber such high status you can move in such an amazing way you have such control and power um and i have i guess maybe this inherent feeling of wanting to do right do do justice by people um and i know that it was quite a long study period so i thought i could go back to uni do law degree i don't know i have no idea where it came from maybe suits the tv show maybe i was watching suits with her i was watching suits probably suits yeah i love suits it's so good is there a question that you wish people would ask you that would help people understand you better

53:37probably the one you asked in the beginning actually what what are you actually like I feel like the only way I can get that out is through my social media which seems ridiculous but it's the only proper outlet that I have to people to show this is what I like to do like I'm pretty introverted I love spending time with my friends and eating like cute little cakes and think like that is me um just wanting to know more about me and not necessarily my job I feel like a lot of people start questions as in what do you do for a living and it's lovely it's great because I love my job but also everyone is a much more than their job um and I like that people get to know or like people want to know who I am in a way apart like aside from everything else are you happy yeah how would you define happiness contentment i think satisfaction in every day i don't wake up anxious anymore i don't feel invalidated anymore i don't i kind of am and most of the time my own boss and and yes i'm employed by these companies and by these you know amazing directors and producers yes i i am i am partly owned by these companies for a time they they rent you almost they rent you but I feel like I know myself now and what I like and what I don't like and that makes me happy because I know that ultimately I'm in control of that do you think you've overachieved your ambition

55:32because when you do and I think ambition is dynamic right yeah it varies and it changes at different stages of our life. But for a certain period of time, if you have achieved the level of ambition that you want or you exceeded, that can give you a strong sense of confidence and purpose. Maybe then. I think in my job and my work, as in like the bit that I love, no, because my ambition is to keep working and to keep getting roles. So for me, that is what fuels me is the hoping and the knowing that, the more the hoping, that I will continue to get to do that part of what I love, the acting part.

56:18I think the bit that feels overwhelming and maybe gives me that false confidence sometimes is the public image side. Because with that comes people that want to be around you and want to help you out. And that is a false, that is a false hope because people aren't always doing it with the best intentions. So, yeah, career wise, no, because I'm looking forward to playing different roles. But the byproduct of that, yes, I wasn't expecting any of this. And again, I don't want to come across ungrateful because, as I said, I love meeting people. It's just very weird for me that people know who I am when I'm walking around or I'm in Tesco.

57:01and I'm so in my own world just buying bananas or whatever and someone's like, can I take a picture? It really still takes me a while to know why they want that because I don't see myself that way and my family and my friends don't treat me like that at all. It's never really, we never really talk about my life. So it's so bizarre. That's the only element that I would say might feel a bit, a false confidency. Thank you, India. Thank you for your honesty. I think a successful acting career can offer, as we've discussed, so many benefits. Fame, financial stability, recognition. But you chose this path when you were 9, 10 years old, when you had no idea what fame was or financial stability for that matter.

57:50So you stepped into this world, into this career with your heart, purely fueled by purpose and self-expression. And so I thank you for reminding us that when purpose leads the way, your passion can become actually your reality. And you can live your dreams and actually make a living from your dreams, which is what most people would love to be doing. So thank you for that. Thank you so much. Thank you for giving me the time here. It's been great. Thank you.

58:30you