Simone Ashley felt “so grateful” to be cast in the lead role in the upcoming psychological thriller This Tempting Madness.

The Bridgerton actress, who has Indian heritage, was convinced that she wouldn’t be given the role because it would be easier to cast a white actress and her on-screen family members.

“I was in LA auditioning for this role in 2023, and I was on the phone to my team and I said, ‘They are never going to ask me; there’s a family in the movie… they are going to want to get a white girl so they can get a white family – it’s just easier to cast,'” she recalled in an interview with Porter magazine.

Simone, 29, revealed that she told her friend, Queer Eye’s Tan France, that she would never be cast as Mia, who has to piece together her past after waking up from a coma.

“I remember saying, ‘Tan, come on, they are never going to cast me – there’s going to be a mom and a dad and I’ve never seen that kind of diverse casting in a psychological thriller before,'” she remembered. “He was like, ‘Simone, go and smash it; you’re going to get this role.’ I called him the following week to tell him I got it, and he was like, ‘See – you can make this happen.'”

The Sex Education star went on to thank director Jennifer E. Montgomery for choosing her.

“This was an independent movie and I was so grateful to the producers and to the director – it didn’t matter where I was from; I was just the right actor for the role,” she continued. “Of course, being the lead in something like Bridgerton is so amazing, but I want to do all genres – actions, thrillers, everything. Women like us should be, like, ‘Why not me?'”

In addition to This Tempting Madness, Simone booked and shot Picture This, a romantic comedy she described as an “Indian Bridget Jones”, following her breakout performance as Kate Sharma in Bridgerton in 2022.

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