For a choose group of actors, the pandemic was not the worst however the very best of occasions, providing breakout triumphs that have been the direct results of the remainder of the world being shut in with nothing however the telly for firm. Charithra Chandran is amongst them. After making her debut in Amazon’s teen spy collection Alex Rider in 2021, she went on to play certainly one of two Indian sisters who took the Regency “ton” by storm within the second season of the Netflix hit Bridgerton. Whereas she is grateful, she isn’t naive. Once I recommend that hers is a whirlwind success, on condition that she solely landed her first job in 2020, she seems to be horrified and immediately protests: “I don’t assume that in any respect. I feel the exact opposite.”
We’re sitting in a London cafe, near the flat Chandran, who seems to be a lot youthful than her 27 years, shares with two college pals. “I’ve doubtlessly had the largest success, in my skilled life, within the second factor I’ve ever completed,” she says. “I’m not saying I’ll by no means do something grander than Bridgerton. I hope that’s not the case – and I’ve massive ambitions. It’s simply somewhat weird that it was the start of my profession. I feel it has actually warped my sense of feat.”
Enjoying debutante Edwina known as for grace and poise of a kind that makes a younger lady glitter in a crowded ballroom. This month, Chandran makes her debut in London’s West Finish with a job that requires solely totally different qualities – not least a capability to carry the stage on her personal. In Directions for a Teenage Armageddon, Chandran performs a traumatised 17-year-old who relives her struggles to deal with an adolescence overshadowed by household tragedy.
Rosie Day’s play – a London fringe hit, which the writer initially carried out herself on the Southwark Playhouse – is the blackest of black comedies: a character-driven dramatic monologue with flashback video inserts that’s so tightly sprung, it might be a spoiler even to present away the protagonist’s title. It opens with the funeral of the lady’s beloved older sister, who has died from issues arising from anorexia. “Mum had been up all evening making sandwiches and cake for the after-party,” the lady remembers. “The wake? Bizarre title for one thing celebrating somebody who is unquestionably not awake.”
This teenage voice – by turns stroppy, unhappy, humorous, and too intelligent by half – propels the drama. “I feel that’s like what a young person’s thoughts is like,” says Chandran. “So many issues are occurring, mentally and emotionally, and numerous it doesn’t make sense.” She likens rising as much as the event of a caterpillar: “The method by which it turns into a butterfly within the cocoon is de facto violent. I feel the teenage years are like that transformation. There’s an inner violence since you simply don’t perceive. After which, hopefully, one thing actually stunning comes out.”
Chandran’s personal teenage years have been spent at a high-achieving personal ladies’ college in Oxford the place, she says, lots of the apparently excessive experiences that occur within the play have been the truth is commonplace. “I’d say that consuming issues and sexual assault are fairly ubiquitous – and that’s very, very unhappy. We all know that one in three girls will expertise sexual assault of their life, so it’s not an ‘excessive’ expertise. It’s a quite common one. Sadly, these are all very relatable.” Did she endure these issues herself? “I’ve undoubtedly had expertise of disordered consuming. I wouldn’t say it’s medical. However I feel, sadly, it’s most likely rarer for a younger lady to have a wholesome, somewhat than an unhealthy, relationship with meals.”
In her first ballroom scene in Bridgerton, Edwina is requested by her dance associate if she performs a musical instrument. “Many, the truth is,” she replies. “However for essentially the most half my training was taken up by extra severe pursuits: fashionable languages, classical literature. I do like to learn.” There is a component of this seriousness in Chandran. The one youngster of an organized marriage between two docs from Tamil Nadu within the south of India, she has many accomplishments, from fluency in English and Tamil to enjoying hockey and netball at county degree. She left college for Oxford College the place – regardless of spending most of her time doing drama – she paced herself effectively sufficient to earn a first-class diploma in philosophy, politics and economics.
She laughs off any suggestion that this makes her appear scarily brainy, stating that she’s nowhere close to as sensible as her mum, who’s an endocrinologist. Her father is a surgeon they usually have been basic financial migrants, who arrived within the UK earlier than she was born and separated so early that she can not bear in mind them being collectively. Though she is near each, she was despatched to board at a prep college on the age of six as a result of their careers have been so full-on. “My dad and mom are polar opposites. I at all times say I’m within the center: much less hard-working than my dad and fewer clever than my mum. However as a mix, it has enabled me to be high-achieving sufficient.”
Trying again on her teenage self, she concludes that she was “a little bit of a cocky shit”. Then she had a transformative hole 12 months, travelling, waitressing and dealing within the constituency workplace of her native MP, which fired up an curiosity in social justice that she nonetheless hopes to pursue. On commencement, she was all set for a job with a world consultancy agency, however had “this niggling feeling” that it wasn’t fairly proper. So she determined to take one other 12 months out, earlier than settling right down to “a 70-hour-a -week job”.
Then the pandemic occurred. Chandran watched her dad and mom going off to work of their hospitals daily. She arrange a meals financial institution “and have become introspective about what I needed to attain and what I’d remorse. I used to be like, ‘I’ve to present appearing a go.’” She despatched appearing businesses emails that have been timed to reach at 9.05 on a Monday morning – and one took her on. Two months later, she was booked for Alex Rider and, earlier than filming had ended on that, she had landed Bridgerton.
Whereas insisting that she was fortunate, she believes there’s one other aspect to her success. “In getting signed to my agent, I used to be a beneficiary of the Black Lives Matter motion. All people took inventory of how numerous their books have been and – whether or not cynically or fantastically – they have been like, ‘Oh, shoot, we’d like extra individuals of color.’”
However, she says: “I additionally assume, ‘What number of occasions have we been handed up for alternatives that we’re greater than deserving of as a result of we’re girls, or as a result of I’m brown?’ And that’s what I inform younger ladies who come as much as me and say, ‘Some individuals on the firm assume I used to be employed simply because I’m brown, or I put on a hijab, or I’m queer.’ I inform them, ‘What number of occasions did you not get the job due to these very causes? Personal it.’”
She is aware of her different benefit – having the ability to play characters 10 years her junior – received’t final. “Contemplating how Hollywood treats girls and ageing, I’m completely happy to play younger for so long as potential. As a brown actor, my experiences aren’t going to be the identical as these of my white friends. I don’t have as a lot selection or alternative.”
Anyway, if work dries up, Chandran will merely return to her different pursuits. She has a dream of organising a micro-community close to her grandparents’ residence in Tamil Nadu, the place she is going to construct solar-powered factories staffed by girls who will share the earnings – “and present the world that there are different methods of working companies and communities; that revenue maximisation doesn’t must be the final word purpose”.
Given her self-discipline, I wouldn’t put it previous her. “I consider life is separated out into durations of goal and durations of enjoyment,” she says, “and my appearing profession is a interval of enjoyment.” This doesn’t imply a play like Directions for a Teenage Armageddon is devoid of goal. “I hope it would assist dad and mom to grasp their youngsters extra,” she says, “and youngsters to grasp their feelings and experiences. In order that they really feel much less of a freak, proper?”
