Go Behind the Scenes of Bridgerton with Bessie Carter

"My favorite part of the day is when my lovely dresser pegs my dress up, because it suddenly makes you look so non-glamorous and it reduces you to look like a five year old child.

The purpose is to keep your dress from getting muddy. I've just stepped off set here, but normally I would have Ugg boots on to protect the shoes, but then the pegs lift up the dress so the dress doesn't go in the mud.

I also just think it makes me look so silly, so I do tend to keep them on longer than I need to. And I was famous for having my pegs quite high walking around like a five-year-old." [editor's note: a peg or clothes-peg in the UK is more commonly called a pin or clothespin in the U.S.]

"This was actually my birthday! I am renowned for my sunglasses game—mainly cause I always have sunglasses that match the color of my dress. These sunglasses are absolutely mental and we were lucky enough to film through a lot of the summer. Genuinely, the best part of the day is sitting just outside your trailer in the sunshine.

My makeup lady got me a gluten free, vegan cake in the make-up truck, and then when I arrived [to set], the lovely ADs put happy birthday bunting and loads of balloons in my trailer.

When we finished filming, I had a birthday dinner party with 16 friends. I hadn't been in a room with people without masks or asking them to do a test for nine months. It was really emotional."

"When we were filming in central London, they give us this cape to hide your costume. It looks absolutely ridiculous, because surely that brings more attention than just wearing orange. However, I understand why—it's to stop paparazzi snapping you. But I thought it was one of the funniest things because surely we all look like we're in Game of Thrones or Harry Potter.

This is when we were filming the big wedding [between Anthony and Edwina] in a church right in the center of Piccadilly. So we stay in a hotel and then [we're] transported across across the street to this church."

"This is the front view. That was in the lift going down to the set. The visor is what the actors have to wear, so it doesn't mess up any of your makeup and hair.

The set was so, so secure; the measures the producers and everyone went to make sure we were all safe was extraordinary and tiresome. You felt very safe, but equally it was weird to see everyone wearing masks and visors.

It was hard, too, because I'm also a goody two shoes. So when they said, 'Please don't go out and get COVID.' I was like, 'Okay.' I honestly did nothing for nine months, because you feel responsibility not to let the team down. "

"Eye patches are just the saving grace. When you get picked up at 4 a.m., which I did most days, because it takes a long time to make me look like Prudence, regardless of how early I went to bed, at 4 a.m., no one looks good. So my lovely makeup lady would give me these little patches and I would sit and slowly feel myself coming alive. Even if it's a placebo, it works.

During COVID, I decided to become a vegan, and gluten free, cause I realized I'd been ignoring a gluten intolerance for 15 years. So I make a lot of my own food and bring it to set. [In the photo] is overnight oats with goji berries and almond milk."

"I just love this photograph. It was about 4 a.m. on a night shoot. It was such a stormy night, and we were safe and sound in this freezing cold orangery.

You can see I'm wearing a plastic thing to protect my wig from the rain. And wearing a big dry robe, basically a duvet you wear. I also love the fact [Rupert Young] is wearing those silly little boots that cover up his costume."

"I just love Emma, my makeup lady. She also looks after Golda [Rosheuvel] and Phoebe [Dynevor] and she is just brilliant. These are some of my favorite moments. It's a quiet moment. You tend to build a nice relationship, a very personal relationship, with your makeup lady, because you spend a lot of time with them. It's a good moment to breathe. You've got a friendly face. They're doing your favor, they're touching you up. You can ask a chewing gum or a little stick to make sure you got nothing in your teeth. Someone captured that really quiet moment."

"My favorite Luke Thompson and me in Salisbury. It was really beautifully sunny, and we were all [on set]—it was the only time this series that we actually stayed away together out of London. Because of COVID we did a lot more [filming] at the studio. So this was a really sunny day, and we were blocking through this really long promenade scene. If there's grass and it's sunny, you know what you have to do. We just had five quiet minutes.

It was also weird, because we were rehearsing all in our own clothes and suddenly that's mental because you are walking and saying these Regency lines, but you are wearing Doc Martins and a hat. And it's very strange."

"This is my favorite costume. It's my dressing gown, and the reason why I love it is because the arms are absolutely insane. They're these puffed out—I don't even know the technical words. I think I look like a beautiful Victorian ghost child. And then when you then add the visor and then you're like, I could be in Doctor Who.

Prudence's costumes in season two—the colors remain just as garish and frighteningly bright. But, she becomes a bit more grown up, a little bit closer to closer to Lady Featherington. They're slowly trying to make her look, as she is, the oldest of the three. They try and mature her a bit."

"I tend to bring in smoothies for my breakfast. I brought in a blueberry-based protein shake. Thank god I went into hair and makeup, and I was talking, and my makeup lady was like, 'wait a sec, stick your tongue out?' And it was bright blue. So I then spent about 10 minutes trying to brush it out, because I had a talking scene.

Note to self: Don't drink blueberry smoothies before scenes."

"Again, I just love the pegs. That dress is really heavy, it's really beaded. This was one of the best days—we were filming at Hampton Court Palace. Most of us were in filming that day, and it was really beautifully sunny. The sunglasses are back out and I look like a mad Into the Woods character, sort of witch lady.

This was when we all go outside for the wedding cake at [Anthony and Edwina's] wedding."

"There was nothing scripted for Prudence to be doing in the wedding] scene. And I saw these Shetland ponies. I went up to Tom Verica, one of the producers and he was directing, and I was like, 'please let me just be with the horses.' And he was like, 'go wild.' They were doing the big round of applause and this cake moment, and Prudence was just obsessed with these horses. I don't even know if it made it into the show, but I had the best day. Those lovely two people who were looking after the horses were really cheeky, so I kept trying to make them laugh. It was one of my favorite days at work."

"This was filming the races, and was one of the first days where we were actually all together. I realized that my breakfast matched my jacket almost exactly. I then went on in real life to show [everyone]. Those little jackets—the technical term is Spencer—those little Spencers just do so much of your character's work for you.

Basically every single job I've done has ended up being funny when it's not meant to be. Actually, I think you do have to take it seriously in order for it to be funny. Prudence is actually quite a serious person—she doesn't actually know that she's funny. And that's the challenge I enjoy as an actor is going, right, it is written to be funny, but I have to play it very, very serious. That's the best part for me."