Rose Williams gave two interviews for Masterpiece PBS about returning to ‘Sanditon’ and what this place means to her character Charlotte. Both interviews are featured in the Sanditon Insider subscription to which you can subscribe right here for free. The first interview given by Rose was published in the form of an article that you can find in integrality right there, and the second interview was a youtube video that you can find right below, as well as the screen captures from it.

MASTERPIECE | Before Sanditon’s long-awaited Season 2 premiere, star Rose Williams shared insights about how Charlotte Heywood has grown, talking sisters, governesses, love and more! Read her interview with MASTERPIECE and catch up with a character craving independence and expansiveness. You may even learn a little bit about those new suitors…

MASTERPIECE:
During her time away from Sanditon, has Charlotte changed or grown?

ROSE WILLIAMS:
Yes. It was amazing that she came back, but I was grateful for the gap between the end of Season 1 and the start of Season 2, as it felt like I could step into Charlotte as a really strong second chapter, and I could relate to her more because she’d been through emotional experience. Of all the Austen heroines, I feel most connection to Anne from Persuasion, because she’s lived a bit and been through heartbreaking pain.

To meet Charlotte having had a life experience that forced her to grow emotionally was really beneficial for me because I can connect to her more. We meet her processing the grief of losing a man that she fell in love with, but grappling with how she can grieve, because it was, so to speak, a “secret” love. We meet her craving adventure again. She feels stifled, in a different way, going back to Willingdon because Willington and the way of life on the farm is incomparable to the energy of Sanditon and the people and characters she met there. So we meet her wanting very much to come back to Sanditon, and grappling within a world that feels confused.

MASTERPIECE:
What is it like for Charlotte to have her younger sister, Alison (played by Rosie Graham), with her at Sanditon?

ROSE WILLIAMS:
It’s really one of my favorite elements, actually. It’s especially nice because the relationship echoes Jane Austen’s relationship with her younger sister, Cassandra, and drew inspiration from Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice. Me and Rosie get on really, really well. We felt very close and had that kind of sister relationship in real life, so I think that despite the fact that Charlotte is pushing Alison away this season, that bond and understanding is there in real life. It was nice for Charlotte to share Sanditon and its expansiveness and its adventure and its excitement with Alison, who has been busting to get out of Willingdon. That relationship on and off screen was a real joy for me.

Rosie is such a light and such a beautiful young actress. She literally just fills up the screen with her glow, and I’m really excited for the audience to get to witness her. I want her to just shine and shine, because I think that’s what she’s meant to do. Continue reading  »