Sanditon Season 3 Cast Interview: Crystal Clarke
In Sanditon‘s final season, Georgiana’s journey to—fingers crossed!—a happy ever after has some truly powerful moments along the way. Actor Crystal Clarke shares her insights into these moments and what they mean for her character, and discusses what the whole Sanditon experience has meant to her, and what she’s already missing the most!
Contains significant Season 3, Episode 3 spoilers.
It seems like this season is really about Georgiana’s journey and discovering her identity, and there are a couple of key moments along the way, early in Season 3, that I’d love to touch on with you. One very poignant moment occurs in Episode 1 when Georgiana is gathering shells on the beach with the Parker kids, and she says, “My mother gave me a shell necklace…” It feels like a beautiful, almost isolated peek into her true interior. Can you talk about that moment?
I feel like that’s a real peek into [her true interior]—it’s not the first, but it’s a very intimate moment. We don’t expect to see it at that point, especially with the girls around. And I think it’s such an intimate moment because Georgiana herself isn’t expecting it, so when she sees those shells, it reminds her of her mother, and then that’s taking to her to a different place in her mind, a different place where there’s a lot of unanswered questions, and a lot of love. You can love someone and have love for people and feel close to people even when they’re not necessarily physically there. And I think that’s one of those moments.
Another powerful scene for Georgiana was in Episode 2, during the performance by American soprano Elizabeth Greenhorn. It was a beautiful scene in the show during which everyone is having their own private moment inspired by the absolute magic of this woman. And that performance and the music did something truly special for Georgianna. Can you talk about her experience in that scene?
At that point she’s feeling very scared and unsure about what to do, where to go, what’s going to happen, and—I think for the first time in a long time—feeling very weak and vulnerable. I would say she’s felt that before, but it’s more of a helplessness. It hasn’t before felt so much and so close to everything being taken away from her. And then, seeing this woman, this woman of color, this Black woman on stage, and all of this glamour and charisma, singing this beautiful song on the beach at night, with some nice lighting—yes, it’s totally moving.
And thinking about all of this stuff, her mom and everything else—it’s a moment of feeling not alone. She’d been feeling very much on her own, and this is a moment where it’s like, no, I’m not the only one. I can do this. There is still a fire in me. And seeing her on the stage, with her fire in her belly, it’s just inspiration enough and so beautiful. So beautiful. We’ve all had that moment—it’s like when you’re a kid and you look up to and you see someone, and they inspire you. It’s that kind of thing.
Can you talk about Georgiana’s experience during the trial over her fortune in Episode 3 as her understanding of her family and her world is being undermined and her safety threatened?
I think it’s interesting because how we’re introduced to Georgiana is she’s a wealthy woman of color, so that puts her in a special place. She’s in a special category; she’s got certain protections. And I think that was always part of the nuance with her story, that yes, she is a Black woman in this time period, but she’s also a Black woman with money in this time period. She’s also a Black woman with money that came from off the backs of slavery in this time period.
So while she’s enjoyed certain privileges up until this point, I think this is a point where she, for the first time, is beginning to understand just how vulnerable she is without those privileges, and how close she is to that vulnerability, and how much other people would want to take that away from her—how much other people would want to be like, no, I’m putting you in your place. This is, I think, the first time where it’s really the feeling that people want to destroy you because they don’t think you deserve or are worthy.
And then, it’s the first time that we see her question her father more, and even allude more to the nuance of the whole situation. Because it’s all well and good, her relationship with Otis in the first season, and then wanting to fight slavery and stuff like that, but you can’t change things without looking at where are the inconsistencies in your own life, and your own being. And what are your privileges, and what do you need to take accountability for, and so on and so on. So I think really, those moments are just shattering.
I think she’s really in a state of shock that whole time, because she’s just taking in all this information and having to process it in front of everyone, and while they are trying to paint her as a whore and stuff like that, with the drawings and whatnot. And so it’s her being dragged through the mud for the first time without anything there to protect her. This is how society would treat you if you did not have the safeguards of wealth.
When she has a conversation with Otis before the trial and asks, “What if I should lose…who would I be?” And he answered, “You’d be free.” Her question gets to the heart of it, because while the fortune has indisputably afforded her all these protections, she’s also been trying all through the seasons to have agency, and the fortune in a way has prevented her from it…
Yeah, and I was just saying this to someone who had asked a really good question of who would she be without? Who would she be if the race and the wealth and stuff wasn’t the question? Who would Georgiana be, what would she want, what would her life be like? And it’s so true. So much of her story has been defined by trying to just, bare minimum, have autonomy, and just exist without being seen a certain way.
With Sanditon coming to an end, as you look back, are there any moments in making this show that stand out to you as really special?
I think it’s not necessarily a moment, but the relationships formed because we worked so intensely with people for so long. And not just cast, but I’m talking about crew. Helen in makeup, and Lisa in makeup—they were with us since the beginning. So to be able to come back and have them there…And then, forming those relationships with Lauren [Miller], who’s head costume designer, and the girls who were in costume department dressing us. There was a feeling of support from and connection with the crew that felt really good. I just have so much love for them. And it’s so interesting because we never know when we’re ever going to see each other ever again, but you always feel like you form connections and such an appreciation for people when you’ve worked so closely with them, and you’ve all worked so hard to get something completed. That never goes away. So it’s really lovely.
What have you missed the most?
I miss the people. Yeah, it was so sad to finish. Oh my God, we were crying. We were in tears.
What do you think working on Sanditon these years has meant to you?
I think a lot of it was very similar to Georgiana in terms of not finding my voice, because I’ve always found it easy to locate my voice, but more like fine-tuning it, or just being true to myself. It’s always put my authenticity to the test, and that’s something that I really, really value in myself and in other people. Filming and television is very much a place where that stuff is very easily lost, and I felt like it was a test for me in terms of being able to have that, and keep it close, and keep it intact for myself, and find a way that I can share it with other people, but in a way that worked also for me.
