According to Deadline, Ruby Barker, the actress who played Marina in Bridgerton, is criticizing Netflix and Shonaland for allegedly not helping her through mental breakdowns while filming. The character suffered through mental strains when she was outcasted by society, and Barker experienced her mental health problems in real life as well. However, Barker claims that Netflix and Shondaland did their best to cover it up.
According to Deadline, Barker detailed her stay at mental facility on the LOAF Podcast and how her treatment was allegedly hidden by the streaming platform.
“When I went into hospital a week after shooting Bridgerton Season One it was really covered up and kept on the down-low because the show was going to be coming out. During filming I was deteriorating. It was a really tormenting place for me to be because my character was very alienated, very ostracized, on her own under these horrible circumstances.”
Barker continued to elaborate saying, “Not a single person from Netflix, not a single person from Shondaland since I have had two psychotic breaks from that show have even contacted me or even emailed me to ask if I’m okay or if I would benefit from any sort of aftercare or support. Nobody.”
Marina is a prominent character in the first season of the show. As a distant cousin of the Featheringtons, she is lodged to live with the family to properly enter society. However, she is quietly shunned from participating in the marriage games once it is discovered that she is pregnant.
Bridgerton‘s first season followed Pheobe Dynevor’s (Fair Play) Daphne Bridgerton, the eldest daughter of the powerful Bridgerton family. Phoebe is at the age to make her debut, meaning she will be courting suitors for marriage. As suitors fail to impress her, one Duke of Hastings, played by Regé-Jean Page (The Gray Man), makes a lasting impression, despite he and Phoebe being total opposites. Their romantic undertaking takes Regency London’s social circles by storm, especially with the mysterious Lady Whistledown, voiced by Julie Andrews (Mary Poppins), documenting the latest gossip in her weekly newsletter.