Ruby Barker as Imani in upcoming play Running with Lions
(Picture: Helen Maybanks)Bridgerton star Ruby Barker has spoken out against “prejudice” that she says has left mixed-race actresses typecast as the “flawless best friend”.
The Islington-born star won acclaim for her role as Marina Thompson in the hit Netflix period drama, which she is reprising in season two next month.
The 25-year-old said she had been “lucky” to get into the industry when the “culture of TV is changing”, and described Bridgerton, which has been praised for its diverse cast, as “ground-breaking”.
But she claims her character’s headstrong attitude irked some fans who expect mixed-race actresses to play more “comfortable” roles.
She told the Standard: “We are not used to seeing mixed-race girls not just play the best friend, completely flawless, smiling away like a dopey idiot with backlit hair. That is how [they] have been presented on screen, on stage for a bloody millennia.
“Suddenly we have this character Marina who has serious agency. I didn’t play her to be liked. I played the truth. It pissed a lot of viewers off because she did break boundaries and people’s perceptions — a lot of people couldn’t handle it. They need to look in the mirror and ask what about that makes them so angry?
“Some people on Reddit are only comfortable seeing mixed-race women play a certain role and they are scared. But it’s what I’m here for and I’m not going to stop.” Asked if the popularity of Bridgerton’s casting of minority ethnic actors in Regency-era high society London would pave the way for other series, she replied: “Hell yeah!”
“Colourblind casting is the future. I want it today, I want it now.”
She said starring in the play Running With Lions with the esteemed all-black Talawa Theatre Company at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre is a “breath of fresh air” for her career.
“Being young, of colour and a woman I feel constantly up against it”, she said. “So I said to myself as a new year’s resolution I’m done with not being in properly diverse pieces of art. I’m not interested in being used to just tick a box to make a project look more ‘diverse’ or more on-trend.”
Meanwhile, she said her former co-star, Regé-Jean Page, should “absolutely” be picked to succeed Daniel Craig as James Bond and that she would love to be his Bond girl. “It would be criminal if he doesn’t get it. He’ll have to put in the work and then I could be his Bond girl,” she said.
“Actually who cares about Regé? I just want to be a Bond girl, I want to have a gun, coming out of the sea. I would smash it.”
Running With Lions is at the Lyric Hammersmith, to March 12
