Former Bridgerton star talks working with Shakespearean legend: "He's made it feel so accessible to me"

For actors who want to stray into the world of theatre, there surely is some sort of checklist out there featuring the items: Shakespeare, the RSC, working with a legend.

Well for Bridgerton star Ruby Stokes – the former Francesca before Hannah Dodd assumed the role – she's ticking off all three at once.

The actress is currently making her RSC in debut in The Stratford-Upon-Avon run of The Tempest, playing a young Miranda alongside icon of the genre Kenneth Branagh.

"It's mental," she said, in an exclusive chat with Radio Times, "working at the RSC, when I was younger it's all I had hoped and dreamed of. I did panic a bit before we started, because I do understand Shakespeare, but my own sort of little devil in the back of my head got in the front of my head for a hot second, and I had to, you know, shove it back in place".

Reflecting on working with Branagh, who is perhaps best known (Harry Potter aside) for his prolific work in Shakespearean films and productions, she said: "I'm in total admiration of Ken and the way he works.

"He puts in so much pre-work so that when he comes to the room, it's so light and easy and truthful. Ken's Prospero is a man I know. It's a man we all know, it's incredibly grounded and rooted in truth.

"And he's an unbelievably generous actor, that he is constantly giving and offering in the scene. I've asked him, like, so many questions and he's sat down with me, and informed me, and heard my questions, and developed with me."

In the show, Brannagh and Stokes play father and daughter, and are the inhabitants of a remote island where a ship's crew wash up.

The role of Miranda is more often seen as a girl full of "compassion, innocence, and wonder," but Stokes said she found herself biting back at that: "She's innocent, but being innocent doesn't make her subservient or less astute.

"She totally acts on instinct and from the heart and she has no preconceived notion to hide her feelings, she's self-assured and front-footed and speaks her mind.

"I'm very drawn to feisty women. So I love her because she hasn't been brought up in this way that women of the time were expected to behave."

This production of The Tempest is running until 20 June in Stratford Upon Avon directed by Richard Eyre. You can find tickets at the official RSC website.

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