Ashley is very familiar with stepping into a beloved franchise and facing their fans’ high expectations head-on. Not just any actor could take on the lead role of Bridgerton season two and make everyone shut up about the loss of Regé-Jean Page (at least for a moment).
“I’d like to think that I’m not a very fearful person,” she told Glamour ahead of the season two premiere in March 2022. “We’re in an industry that, yes, as an artist you can feel certain pressures at times, but we’re not performing heart surgery or curing diseases or having lives dependent on us. That’s real pressure. When I put that into perspective, I’m like, ‘It’s fine.’”
Though we can expect to see Ashley in Bridgerton season three, the actor also told Glamour that she’s itching for something unexpected. “I’m interested in culturally specific roles, but also very much so non-culturally specific ones,” she said. “I want to go up for roles that anyone can relate to. I want to be seen for my talent. I think I’m very smart and I’ve got great ideas, and I want to be seen for that and not for how I look.”
The actor says she’s been offered “a lot of Bollywood stuff,” but has turned the roles down. “I said no to a lot of that because I want to change it up,” she says. “I want to take roles that maybe people wouldn’t expect me to play.”
Shall we start the #SimoneAshleyForBond hashtag now?
