“Queen Charlotte” actor Corey Mylchreest thinks it’s best to look at King George’s illness without a solid diagnosis, but he does share the roots of George’s poor mental health.
Viewers start to get glimpses into the king’s “fits” as Charlotte spends more time around him. His love for astronomy crosses over into what look like hallucinations in which the king confuses reality for the galaxy. The actor emphasized that George’s condition is rooted in anxiety and stress.
“Everyone can have theories, but what is useful to know is that it’s triggered by panic, and that panic is set off because his trauma is so wearable because he hasn’t addressed it ever,” Mylchreest said. “No one has ever addressed it, and he’s constantly in situations that trigger that. Once, the stress or this panic or this anxiety, that’s when he loses his facility.”
The King’s condition is hinted at in the “Bridgerton” series, but the prequel takes viewers into the entire backstory of how the King and Queen met and got married. Charlotte learns a lot about George’s family history, and young Lady Danbury (Arsema Thomas) gleans more information through George’s mother Princess Augusta (Michelle Fairley).
“I think what’s really interesting and what’s important to acknowledge is that George had an incredibly traumatic childhood filled with lots of different kinds of abuse and pressure,” Mylchreest said. “[It’s] like familial and personal oppression, very far from the systemic oppression the Charlotte’s facing, but domestic oppression.”
Augusta confesses to Lady Danbury during one of their social duels that King George’s grandfather was cruel to George, and they both had to submit to him after George’s father died.
“[George] has abandonment trauma from his father, who he had a very positive relationship with, who he lost. [There’s] an incredible fear of intimacy from the loss of that and from his grandfather’s abuse,” Mylchreest said. “In my perspective, he lost his mum around the same time that his dad died, not physically, but emotionally, and has been on his own on this journey to a life that he is desperately trying to avoid. That creates a very, very easily triggered man.”
Mylchreest emphasized that there is no clear diagnosis for the king’s ailment.
“I had to do my research. I spoke to a specialist, but I think that’s most useful if the audience doesn’t doesn’t know exactly what it is,” he told TheWrap. “I think it’s most useful as a show if we do not diagnose him because we’re not trying to diagnose the actual guy, and also the show is told through the lens of Charlotte’s perspective. To Charlotte, it’s a mystery. I think it’s most useful for the audience if it’s a mystery.”
