“I had never seen anyone inhabit a character so fully!”

Bridgerton creator Shonda Rhimes has revealed that she cast the role of Queen Charlotte almost immediately upon seeing Golda Rosheuvel’s audition.

In a joint Instagram post from Rosheuvel (Queen Charlotte) and The Jennifer Hudson Show, the former discussed how she initially heard about the role.

Rosheuvel shared how she received a call asking her to audition for the role of Queen Charlotte in Bridgerton. She explained how she was preoccupied with Christmas holiday plans when the opportunity came up.

“I said to my partner – now wife – ‘let’s just do this thing like, oh God, okay,'” she started, recalling her exasperation.

“We did it in half an hour, 45 minutes. I sent off the first tape thing. Didn’t think anything about it, didn’t care really,” she admitted. “And I think it’s because I knew her so well it was easy to do. I just ran it off. It was simple.”

Rosheuvel then shared the moment she heard back about her audition tape. “The week between Christmas and New Year, I got a phone call saying the director loves it. Your tape’s going to go to Shonda Rhimes.”

“What’s meant for you is meant for you,” replied Hudson. “You know what I mean?” agreed Rosheuvel. “I was like ‘what the hell?'”

The post, captioned “@goldarosheuvel was meant to be the Queen!”, received hundreds of comments. This included a comment from Rhimes herself, who gave an insight into her decision making process.

She wrote: “It took literally 30 seconds of seeing @goldarosheuvel audition tape for me to know that she was the one. I had never seen anyone inhabit a character so fully!! She is the best. ❤️”