‘I think I tore my shoulder at one point’: Bridgerton’s Simone Ashley on wearing corsets in the show

The Netflix original period drama Bridgerton recently launched the trailer of its second season. This season, Simon Ashley, who also played Olivia Hanan in the ragingly popular Sex Education, plays the lead role as Miss Kate Sharma, the oldest ser of an Indian family who has just arrived in Bridgerton.
The show’s wardrobe, too, had caused quite a stir, catalysing the cottage core trend in fashion (and lifestyle) that had spurred during the pandemic, with billowy gowns, Victorian designs and silhouettes, and endless number of corsets. Talking to Glamour magazine about her experience in this rather painful garment, Ashley said it was “interesting”. She shared that a wardrobe crew had to even help her put her shoes on because “when you’re in a corset, you can’t put your shoes on.”
Ashley went on to share that she had had a big meal before the first day of the shoot as the leading lady to “be really energised”. However, she adds that “that’s when I needed to be sick, basically because I was wearing the corset. I realised when you wear the corset, you just don’t eat.”

She went on to say that wearing a corset “changes your body”. “I had a smaller wa very momentarily. Then the minute you stop wearing it, you’re just back to how your body is.” Ashley also had to go through a “lot of  pain” while wearing the corset and says “I think I tore my shoulder at one point!”

She talked about feminism in the interview as this season delves into the works of writer and women’s right advocate Mary Wollstonecraft. “Now women just have more freedom to be whoever they want to be. There’s not a small, tiny box that we have to fit into any more,” she said, referring to the restrictions imposed on women during the Regency period.
She shared her experience of facing sexism, saying that she has “dealt with a lot of sexism in my life. I don’t really feed any energy into it, and maybe there’s a problem in that? Maybe there are things happening that I should acknowledge, and should let affect me?”
Her one advice to women? “Don’t be afraid to be difficult. It’s a word that we hear a lot these days, ‘Oh, she’s being difficult or tricky,’ when, actually, maybe someone’s just following their instincts and speaking out for themselves, and I think why not? Why wouldn’t you? It’s not a bad thing. You’re just taking care of you.”
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