When I sit down with Bridgerton's Claudia Jessie, Jessica Madsen, and Hannah Dodd over Zoom, it's immediately clear that they LOVE each other. The three women talk so quickly and overlap so much that it's easy to believe they play friends and sisters onscreen. And when I ask for their go-to confidence boosters, Claudia can barely explain why she's "just accepted that it's probably not gonna happen" before Jessica and Hannah jump in.
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‘Bridgerton’ Stars Claudia Jessie, Jessica Madsen, and Hannah Dodd On Keeping Secrets & Season 4"Ultimately I could love myself, or I could just be like, 'Here I am,'" Claudia Jessie says. "Most of the time, none of us know what we're really doing anyway. So I think I'm just letting go of any attachment of trying to feel confident."
"You should be confident because everybody loves you," Hannah Dodd counters. "Everybody's obsessed with you! I think, if you surround yourself with the right people as well, like my friends give me confidence, the right people, like your team and you guys."
"'How are you so confident to be so different?' I say at one point to Eloise," Jessica Madsen says. "And when I read that in the script, it was just like [how] I feel about you, and I really mean it...I remember saying it and really feeling like that was 100 percent true from me to you, [Claudia]."
The love is totally reciprocated, and when I ask what the three women would write in their own Lady Whistledown column, Claudia hypes up Jessica's love of music.
"I love music. I love making playlists," Jessica says. "I went through a little stage where Spotify was my everything. I wanted to be a DJ."
"You'd look great as a DJ," Claudia adds. "I don't know your DJ'ing skills yet, but you'd look amazing behind the deck like that."
Hannah adds that they talk a lot about their dogs, and books. "I do love books," Claudia, who just finished Travis Baldree's Legends & Lattes, agrees. "I'm a big reader. Basically I like things that don't mean I have to leave the house. I could talk about the inside of my flat thoroughly. I could write about that, my four walls."
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Bridgerton season 3 opens after Eloise's discovery that Lady Whistledown is actually her best friend Penelope Featherington. The middle Bridgerton child has had to keep it a secret all this time, and Claudia Jessie admits she's a good secret keeper, just for a different reason: "I'm good because I forget them immediately," she says.
"I'm like the grave," Jessica Madsen promises.
"I wouldn't say I'm a grave," Hannah Dodd adds. "I just have a group of people that I'm like, 'They don't count.' I will not tell anybody. But like, except for these...one or two very trustworthy people."
In the show, multiple characters' trust in one another is threatened — learning about Penelope's secret identity challenges Eloise's trust in Penelope, and Colin's remarks that he'd never court Pen threaten her trust in him. While we see these relationships evolve in unexpected ways, we also see new sides to characters we thought we knew. Namely, Cresside Cowper.
"Other than, obviously the really sad passing of the Bridgerton dad, Eloise comes from an incredibly sheltered, privileged, happy, nourishing environment where they can all be themselves," Claudia says. "So I think it is really important to see just how different it is [from the Cowper household], cause it also informs us a bit more about how difficult the situation is for Cressida and why she might be colder or a bit closed off."
"[She's] very lonely as well," Jessica adds. "She's got nobody. Not her mum, and definitely not her dad. It's opposite ends of the spectrum."
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And while season 3 of Bridgerton is just about to debut, Jessica Madsen, Hannah Dodd, and Claudia Jessie already have dreams for Bridgerton season 4.
"I'd love for Eloise to get political, do you know what I mean?" Claudia says. "I'd love that because there's so much room for Eloise to go there."
"She could be the first Prime Minister!" Jessica chimes in.
"I don't know for Francesca," Hannah says. "I'm so excited to see what the writers come up with. I just hope she steps into herself a little bit more and kind of goes after things that make her happy, and knows that she's deserving of that. But I'm new here. So, like anything they give me, I'm gonna be happy with."
Brit + Co Rapid Fire With The Bridgerton Cast
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Brit + Co: We've talked so much about books, what are you all reading?
Claudia Jessie: I just finished a book called Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree. And it literally says on the cover "Low stakes, high cozy vibes"...It was beautiful. Really comforting. It was like a big hug.
Hannah Dodd: I'm reading Yellowface at the moment, and I just finished Lessons in Chemistry. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo [was] good. And that really took me a while to find another book that filled that hole.
Jessica Madsen: I have Dopamine Nation...I love audio books. So I actually have Viola Davis reading to me every night her autobiography, which is amazing.
B+C: What music is on repeat for you at the moment?
CJ: I'm listening to a band called Say She She. They're like three sexy, beautiful girls doing like funk, disco pop. Beautiful, cool stuff. And they're really, really cool.
HD: I'm less cool and very generic. Beyonce's new album and Ariana Grande's new album, and I'm obsessed with Noah Kahan at the moment as well.
JM: I'm a mixed bag. I've got a lot of different stuff that I love. Yeah, I've, I've been listening to a lot of Fat Freddy's Drop cause they've got a great summer vibe. Two Feet I really enjoy...I like jazz. Disco.
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B+C: Bridgerton is our next watch, what's the last thing you binge watched?
CJ:Barry, which I think is the best comedy that's ever been written, ever. I know I'm gonna re-watch it as well cause it's just unbelievable. The amount of respect they show that comedy is so beautiful.
HD: I haven't binged anything in a while, but I'm really excited to watch Ripley. And I think the last thing I binged was One Day as well, which left me heartbroken.
JM: I just binge watched — I say binge gently — Yellowstone, so I want to be a cowgirl now, really badly. I want to live in denim for the rest of my life, in cowboy boots, badly. And then I just I always put Schitt's Creek on. I've watched it 10 times now, which is embarrassing. I love it. We need laughter. We need fun.
B+C: What's on your summer 2024 bucket list?
JM: I would love to get on a beach. I wanna be on a beach for a bit and just feel the sand and the sea.
HD: I'd just like to get through this part of my life, which is quite exciting and new for me and I don't know. I wouldn't say no to a beach either.
CJ: Just a load of iced coffees. That's great when that season comes around, you can have iced coffee. That's like my favorite cause I kid myself into thinking it's not the same amount of caffeine as a hot coffee, so I'm like 'I can have three!' and then I'm rattling.
What are you most excited to see in Bridgerton season 3? Check out Bridgerton’s Nicola Coughlan & Luke Newton Got The Best Advice From Their Co-Stars for more!
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