Yahoo News Bridgerton's Adjoa Andoh Is Working to Amplify Voices of Refugees
Adjoa Andoh is aware of the spotlight on her.
In Bridgerton's third season, she returns as the formidable Lady Danbury, who is not only grappling with the surprise appearance of her brother, Marcus (Daniel Francis), but also managing Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel)'s schemes and fostering her friendship with Violet Bridgerton (Ruth Gemmell). But on one day in early June, she's not talking about Bridgerton's plot twists, wigs, soundtrack, or anything else—rather, she's speaking about her work with the International Rescue Committee (IRC). Andoh is on a train in Poland, where she had spent the day at the IRC's center for women and children in Gdynia, visiting with Ukrainian refugees.
"I've always felt that when you have the opportunity to lend your voice to people whose voices are not listened to, or not heard, or not even acknowledged to be speaking, then I feel like it's my privilege and my duty to try and amplify their voices," Andoh says. "I'm not an [aid] worker who works in regions of conflict. I'm not a politician. I'm just a person who gets paid for wearing frocks and doing silly. So if I can lend my shoulder to the IRC's wheel, to support them in the work they're doing—with all their knowledge and experience to support refugees—then it's my honor to do that."
Andoh, 61, was raised with this innate sense of service; her mother worked in Linz, Austria, helping people displaced from World War II resettle, and her father, who was a journalist, fled Ghana in his twenties. "Between both my parents, my mother helping [refugees] and my father being [a refugee], I feel invested in people in terrible circumstances trying to stay alive and keep their families safe," she says. "So if I can help, then I will."
Wherever she goes, however, she knows her role as the Lady Danbury in Bridgerton will be the topic of conversation—and she doesn't mind. "Everywhere we go, people are very different, but they're all drawn together cause they love the show. They come together and they feel like they're a family, and it's about what your race or your religion or your sexuality or your income bracket or whatever—they all love the show. And there's something about that wide welcoming embrace that I'm really proud of. As as the world fractures more and more, in this election season that we're all in, the idea of an embrace that says, 'I see you, I value you. I hear you. Everyone is welcome,' that bit of cultural conversation is helpful, even if it is dressed up in a regency frock, and a bit of 'will-they-won't-they.'"
In fact, she finds inspiration for her work with the IRC within her character—especially now that Lady Danbury's backstory has been explored on Queen Charlotte (the younger version of the character was played by Arsema Thomas in the prequel). Viewers, she says, now "understand that there was a fragile young woman whose future was decided by men. And when the man she didn't want to marry dies, and she's left with four children, she suddenly discovers she also has no power, she has no means of support, there is no future inheritable title that's going to come for her family. She has to live on her wits and be strategic in order for her family to survive." She adds, "I love that we now know that the fragility of Lady Danbury's start and we understand that she has had to carve out a space for herself—as many women do all over the world—a space for herself and her children, in order to survive. The woman we see in the present day is born of those circumstances."
In particular, she sees "echoes" of Lady Danbury's story reflected in the lives of Ukranian women who have "lost all agency over their lives, but still have to raise their children and make a future for themselves."
"So at one level, we're doing are doing a funny little costume drama with crazy sets and Madonna played by Spring Quartet and all that sort of stuff. But another level, we are making a space for people to have the distance to reflect in a way that's not pointing a finger and wagging it at them, but just maybe makes people pause and have a think about how life is."
Learning Lady Danbury's backstory—namely, that Agatha, whose birth name is Soma, is of royal heritage, and from the Kpa-Mende Bo tribe in Sierra Leone—was critical in shaping Andoh's character in the most recent season of Bridgerton. "Having that backstory was lovely for me," she says. "It also reflects there was a lot of traffic between posh-o families in Africa and posh-o families through Europe. It wasn't all through enslaved narratives—hierarchy will find hierarchy, [even] in the 19th century. It was interesting to just put a little glimpse of that into our story."
She's looking forward to Bridgerton season four and beyond, especially now the show has introduced a queer romance. "We diverged [from Julia Quinn's novels] on day one with Queen Charlotte, who isn't in the books. In 2024, we have better plumbing, we have penicillin, we have anesthetic, and we have birth control. Honestly, relationships have always been what they are. So there have been LGBTQI+ people in the world since the world first began. Why would we not think that they would be in Regency England? Of course they were. And there are many, if you dig into LGBTQI+ history, you'll find all sorts of relationships happening in all areas of the world and society." She added, "I'm thrilled and delighted, because one of the strengths of the show for me is its wide embrace. What we're saying is: The world is as the world has always been, and here's a little slice of it in a fancy frock."
For her, Bridgerton serves as a shining example of the important of diversity—especially in the face of the increasing villainization of refugees and asylum seekers. "So often we see refugees being used as a political football. You have it in America, we have it in Britain, they have it in Poland," she says. "Everywhere has it. And when you sit with these women, you go, 'You could be my next door neighbor.' A few years ago, that could have been my children when they were toddlers. A refugee is just me in a different circumstance."
This World Refugee Day, which according to the United Nations "celebrates the strength and courage of people who have been forced to flee their home country to escape conflict or persecution," Andoh is proud of her work on Bridgerton and with the IRC—things she views as hand-in-hand. As she says, "I'm so proud to be on a show that goes: We are a diverse, complex, gorgeous, interesting world, and we want all of it to be seen, heard, and celebrated."
To learn more about the work of the International Rescue Committee, visit rescue.org
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