my guest tonight is a fantastic actress
who plays
daphne bridgeton on the hit new netflix
series
from shonda rhimes bridgeton let's take
a look
you appear displeased do i
we find ourselves seated beside each
other miss bridgeton
i'd like to thank you happy about that
perhaps your grace
it would be better if you refrain from
thinking about me at all
it is simply surprising yes however is
it possible for a lady to offer anything
but a smile
while seated beside a duke regarding
subjects much too much even one of your
reputations you are aware of my
reputation unaware of your friendship
with my eldest brother if that were not
enough i'm
also aware of the things that certain
writers recently written of you
presumptuous clearly arrogant most
definitely
you are a rake through and through
hey phoebe hi how are you hello i'm good
how are you
uh i'm good now uh i'm thrilled that i
get a chance
uh to talk to you because you are the
woman of the moment this is a
huge deal so uh i mean just first of all
congratulations
thank you thanks so much yeah it's been
a surreal few weeks
yeah it's so fascinating because
richardson came out
was it three four weeks ago it just came
out yeah
so exactly pretty much exactly four
weeks ago it came out on christmas day
okay so this is what i experienced it
came out christmas day
about two days later everybody i know
was texting me and saying have you seen
bridgeton
and i said that was two days two days
two days everybody
and then uh uh you know i said i'm going
to watch it give me a second
um i hear doctors are like leaving
mid-operation
to go watch bridgerton everybody's gone
mad for the show
and uh deservedly so it's a terrific
show but
it's kind of a mania i don't know what
it's like in uh in britain
in the uk but here in america people
have lost their minds it's great
yeah it's amazing it's so and it's so
lovely to be part of something that's
obviously
you know bringing a lot of joy to
people's lives and this
really crazy time so it's just it's good
to be part of something positive i guess
yeah it's very positive uh everybody
looks gorgeous the costumes are stunning
i think it's a nice and there's so much
about it too
that i think is fascinating uh
one of the things i'm curious about is
people talk
today about dating and how difficult it
is with the apps with the social apps
and what a weird experience it is
and i'm curious if you almost
do you prefer i mean obviously there's a
lot of downsides but
are there things that you prefer about
the way they were doing it in the 19th
century
i mean you know i mean yeah i think the
problem today is that there is no social
etiquette
so you can ghost someone and just
sort of blank them completely and
there's no you know there's no
repercussions to that
so that's something you have to deal
with and also you know if if someone was
into you
in those days they would come around and
bring you
a big bouquet of flowers it was pretty
much as simple as that so you
knew where you stood with people i think
that's the that was the benefit of being
a woman back in those days obviously
that's probably the only
[Laughter]
yeah i was gonna say not many people are
saying
early 19th century great time to be a
woman uh
but um but yes people had to put in an
effort
they had to put in an effort and now
it's just someone can
um like something that you wrote or they
can send you an emoji
and you think wait a minute back then
you had to ride
you know 80 miles through a bog to
deliver some roses
it feels like a guy had to work for it
back then they did
yeah they did um but i think you know i
think there's
there's a pluses and negatives isn't
there because also
if i'm not interested you know if
there's a nigel burbrook
of today i don't have to pander
i can just say no i'm good thank you yes
that's true i don't even have to say
thank you
[Laughter]
you don't even have to say anything you
just don't
you just turn off your phone for a week
exactly
and maybe he gets the message uh um
i know i like that i like that a lot
there's
obviously so many things about the show
that i feel people right now are hungry
for
for example during this covid crisis
nobody's been dressing up and i think
you know obviously the show is
really entertaining in so many ways but
part of the show is you all look so
beautiful and you're dressed
so nicely and everyone watching it is
wearing sweatpants
yes and t-shirts including me including
you in fact i'm wearing sweatpants right
now
[Laughter]
so basically you're from like from the
waist up
from the waist up you are the yeah there
you go yes
yes yeah i know i won't show you what
i'm wearing because
yeah it's not good um i'm wearing very
short shorts uh
i believe that not a good look um is
there any chance because
i've watched the show with my wife and
it's very interesting because my wife
and i watch the show
and we watch it in the main room we have
two children
and they're teenagers but on the younger
side of being teenagers
and they wander in and out so
we love the show but we were worried
about well we can't
have them walking through if there's an
intense scene and then someone told us
the exact episode there's an episode
that everyone that if there's kids
around yes
episode yeah is it six yeah
i mean yeah it's quite easy to remember
actually isn't it as well
episode six yeah episode six is the
danger
danger red lights hazard
no i couldn't handle it i fainted twice
[Laughter]
they took me to the hospital um but uh
it was fantastic
it was great uh but i just i just kept
they brought me around with smelling
salts uh
but um it was nice that the word is out
like
now first of all that works both ways if
there are people who are worried about
their kids
worried about maybe their grandmother
coming into the room
um you need to be a little careful about
episode six but you also know it's going
to drive people
to episode six as well yeah so with my
family
because i watched it with with my
grandparents and with my family we
we just we skipped episode six it was
just like
it was a no-go you know
there's a few before that as well so i
had to sort of sit by the remote and
fast forward the bits
before episode six that are slightly
yeah on the precarious side as well
you're there with the remote
pushing fast forward ready to go ready
to go
and you probably you know exactly what's
happening and then
and then stop i'm like you don't need to
dance yeah
and and suddenly there's there's like a
baby or something and you're like
trust me yeah i had to give them a
download of everything that happened in
episode six so they were all caught up
um
so yeah that was fun i gave them a
little like okay so what happens is
and skipped all the all the bad parts
let me ask you uh uh
a quick a quick question and you feel
free to be completely honest with me
um i look at this show and yes obviously
everyone's very attractive so that's
going to be a problem for me
but i do have the overall
skin tone of someone in the uh
let's say 18th 19th century england i
look like someone who maybe hasn't been
well nourished and taken care of
would there could there be some small
part for me you know i just gotta say
because it's not i mean the bridgetones
we're all you know we're all kind of
pasty
but it's also the hat you've got the
bridgeton boy hairstyle going on
honestly they were in hair and makeup
for hours getting getting your hair done
and you just have it i have that
those guys the bridgetons especially
have that big thing of hair and they
have those crazy side burns
i just need buns i could do that and
um and then we just have to find a
reason why someone like me
would be in the show and i don't want to
be distracting literally just coming by
in the background every now and then
hello you know quick wave and then off i
go you've got the accent as well
well no what i just did was insulting
and terrible
i wanted to ask you quickly about the
narrator
of bridgeton is julie andrews the great
julie andrews and i know
i mean the word icon doesn't even do
justice to to who julie andrews is
and what she's accomplished because
she's the narrator of the show have you
had a chance to meet her
i have been i haven't and i it's haunted
me ever since the pandemic started i
i think um i i actually read her
her autobiography in lockdown because i
just wanted to be
close to her uh i was so disappointed we
didn't get to meet so i just found out
everything i could
about julie andrew so that now i feel
like i know her
and if we ever meet in person i i have
something to talk to about although
i worry that might scare her away so i
might just play a bit
a bit cooler yeah sometimes that
frightens people when you say
when you say it's real oh uh you know
phoebe uh meet julie andrews you were
born in leeds
uh in in 1928 uh you weigh 135 grams you
know you don't want to say that kind of
stuff to people it sounds creepy
um no i have to tell you of all i've
been very fortunate i've had the chance
to over a long career i've been able to
meet just about everybody
never had the chance to meet julie
andrews but they have something here in
the states the macy's day parade which
is a big deal on thanksgiving
and i was in new york once just before i
left about 10 years ago and the macy's
day parade was going by
and i was holding my daughter who was
just a baby at the time
and suddenly right in front of me julie
andrews goes by on top of the parade
float
waving i dropped my daughter practically
and started screaming
and she i think she saw i don't think
she recognized me but she thought who's
that horrible woman
[Laughter]
i completely lost it that's the effect
she has on people
she does yeah she does she's she's a
she's a basically a royal
yeah she is yeah um have you done a lot
of
chat shows before you're uh have you
done a lot of chat shows in the uk
not really no this is like my first late
night you know
america this is big huge deal i'm really
excited to be here
well um thanks for reading that as i
wrote it
uh make sure she says this is a big deal
to her
um excuse me well uh you i only ask
because you're a natural
you're so easy to talk to and delightful
and
um i got major i got major points
in my house today when uh my wife said
uh you know what's what are you doing
today and i said oh i've gotta
shoot this and do that then i'll be
talking to you know
phoebe denver and she was like she's
talking to you and i was like
come on no
she has more respect for you than for me
uh we'll just leave it at that
bridgeton is available on a little thing
called netflix
and i don't think you'll have any
trouble finding it and uh you're such a
big deal right now that sometimes before
the show i like to look up
people to find out a little something
else about them prepare
i think i typed i was going to type your
whole name in and i think i typed in the
p
from for phoebe and your name came up
so that's before like peter the great so
uh the apostle the apostle paul uh
uh so thrilled for you and um thank you
so much for
for being on the show stay safe say well
and thank you and i hope to see you in
season two
yeah guess what you're the uh you're the
you're the only person you're the
only person who's excited about that
[Laughter]
i could be a creepy older suitor for one
of the
you know for the for one of the
daughters who um gets killed instantly
how about that
no i'll be uh lord dibble dab something
like that you guys
talk to the writers talk to sean i will
i will figure that out for me anyway
thank you very much phoebe thank you and
it's great to talk to you
you