‘Bridgerton’ Star Golda Rosheuvel Was Told To Stay In The Closet

By Rivea Ruff ·Updated April 28, 2022

Though she’s out, proud, and open about her sexuality now, actress Golda Rosheuvel was instructed to adopt antiquated ways of navigating her personal life in Hollywood with some early-career advice from a surprising source.

As the Bridgerton star revealed in a recent interview on the “Just for Variety” podcast, she was always interested in being upfront about who she is. But the director on one of her first professional sets told her that would essentially be career suicide.

LONDON, ENGLAND – MARCH 15:Golda Rosheuvel attends the press night after party for “Cock” at The Londoner Hotel on March 15, 2022 in London, England.(Photo by David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images)

“We were talking about being out and proud and representation and whether I should say I was gay in interviews,” Rosheuvel told Variety. “And it was an absolute no: ‘You absolutely shouldn’t do that. It could or it would ruin your career as an actor.’ I would rather lose a job than not be true to who I am. I’d rather not work in an industry that doesn’t accept me. It just wasn’t how I was raised. And then her being out as a female director, as a lesbian director, I was like, ‘I don’t understand this advice.’ It blew my mind.”

“I’m out and proud,” she went on. “My sexuality is really important to me in terms of existing, knowing that I’m important. I’m as important as anyone on the planet. Do you know what I mean? My partner [writer Shireen Mula] always says, ‘The mere fact that you’re on the screen. The mere fact that you’re in Bridgerton as a Black, biracial, cis-gender, lesbian playing the first Black Queen of England. The fact that you’re there is immense.’”

Rosheuvel’s impact on the show was so immense, in fact, that her fan-favorite character Queen Charlotte is getting her own spinoff show, currently slated to come sometime in 2023.

LONDON, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 18: Golda Rosheuvel attends the UK Special Screening of “Dune” at Odeon Luxe Leicester Square on October 18, 2021 in London, England. (Photo by Eamonn M. McCormack/Eamonn M. McCormack/Getty Images for Warner Bros )

Rosheuvel will be honored with the Equality Award at the 2022 Human Rights Campaign gala in New York this weekend. She ways she is extremely proud to be recognized as a role model by the LGBTQ civil rights organization.

“It’s important for me to be out and proud and to normalize things for that one person, that one young boy or girl or transgender or non-binary [person] to be able to say, ‘I’m not alone.’”

TOPICS: Golda Rosheuvel LGBTQ+ LGBTQIA+