Simone Ashley on Brad Pitt’s ‘F1,’ Returning to ‘Bridgerton,’ and What Cynthia Erivo Has Proved

Simone Ashley’s parents supported her dream of being an actor when she was a teenager, but a few years later, they seemed to be watching the clock. “When I was in my early 20s, they were still open to it,” the actor says on a video call from her home in London. “But I think, secretly, they were like, ‘Oh, when you hit 25, that’s when you have to get serious.’ I didn’t really explain how much I wanted it—and how hard I was working for it—because I wanted the work to prove that I could do it. Then when I, thankfully, could make a living off doing this, I think they were just like, ‘Cool, she’s fine.’ ”

Fine doesn’t do justice to Ashley’s trajectory. By the time she was 25, she had a steady gig as a popular bubble-gum-popping high schooler in Sex Education, with Gillian Anderson. By 26 she’d broken out on the second season of Bridgerton as Kate Sharma, an independent young woman who’d rather race through the countryside on her horse than promenade around a ballroom waiting for a gentleman to ask her to dance.

Now Ashley has scored a plum role in F1, Brad Pitt’s Formula One racing film, which roars into theaters in June. “I’m really out to show such a range of things I can do,” she says. “Being dark-skinned, being a culturally specific woman in Hollywood, it’s about finding the right kind of project where you just see the humanity in someone.” Along the way, she has added all manner of things to her résumé. She’s appeared in a Nespresso commercial with George Clooney and become a L’Oréal Paris brand ambassador as well as a fashion It girl, who wore a sequined midnight blue Prabal Gurung gown— and purple eye shadow that evoked a young Cher—to the Met Gala last year.

Ashley’s parents, Latha and Gunasekharan Pillai, were Tamil academics who emigrated from southern India to Surrey, England, before she and her older brother, Sean, were born. Ashley demonstrated an aptitude for singing early on, so her parents arranged for lessons, which led to musical theater. “Then I watched a bunch of Quentin Tarantino movies, and I just got the bug,” she says. “I explored film and decided that this was what I wanted to do.”

Ashley had enough of a rebellious streak to leave school at 16 to pursue acting and spent some of her teens with relatives in and around Los Angeles. At 18 she started to model and try out for roles, and later honed her acting skills at performing arts school back in London. “Any time I got rejected or told I couldn’t do something, it felt strongly external,” she says. “I never let it hit my heart. That feeling of believing in myself always outweighed any external denial I may have faced.”

With Kate, Ashley brought a more modern protagonist to Bridgerton—a sharp, quick-witted outsider who also happened to look stunning in jewel-toned gowns. It turned out to be just the right combination to bedazzle Anthony Bridgerton (played by Jonathan Bailey), and the two of them ended the season as viscount and viscountess. Bridgerton raised Ashley’s profile, but she was careful not to get confined to the genre. Along with signing on for F1—a movie she calls “one of the coolest experiences of my life”—she appeared as one of Ariel’s sisters in 2023’s live-action The Little Mermaid, took on the psychological thriller This Tempting Madness, and starred in the rom-com Picture This.

In Picture This, which came out in March on Prime Video, Ashley plays Pia, an aspiring photographer who’s told by a spiritual guru that she’ll meet the love of her life in her next five dates. “I always wanted to be the leading lady in a rom-com,” she says, “and to represent more women that look like me as that kind of Bridget Jones character.” Along with displaying her charm and comedic chops, Picture This gave Ashley her first executive producer credit, which let her ensure that her own background was accurately represented in the woman she played. “We celebrate her heritage,” she says. “The joy and the comedy is also in celebrating the culture.”

Now Ashley is having a homecoming of sorts by returning to Bridgerton for its fourth season, which will air next year. This time around Kate is a new mother, so there are fresh waters for Ashley to dive into. “There was so much drama and volatility before,” she says. “Now when I play her, she’s much softer, which is super fun.” Ashley is also recording her debut album for Universal Music with producer Fraser T. Smith, who has worked with Adele and Drake, among others. She describes the album as pop with some R&B references and says she’s been inspired by the likes of Sade and Alicia Keys. She hopes the album could lead to starring in a movie musical someday. She’d also love to play an action hero, a Lara Croft type. “It’s really good to lean into having fun with it and not taking it all too seriously—and taking opportunity when it comes.”

Ashley has always admired the way Dev Patel has shaped his career. “I definitely don’t want to be playing characters that feel overly stereotypical,” she says. The doors haven’t always been open to her—she’s been in auditions where it was clear she wouldn’t get the role because of her skin color. “I have been very close to getting big, life-changing roles but losing them to a blond actress,” she says. “This is why it’s so amazing how supportive women of color in Hollywood are. We all speak the same language, and we all understand that kind of hurdle.” In low moments, Ashley sometimes calls up Wicked star Cynthia Erivo, who became a friend and mentor after they met on the Ellen DeGeneres show in 2022: “She’s just done it and proved that women like us get bums in seats.”

HAIR, SHON HYUNGSUN JU; MAKEUP; WENDY ROWE; MANICURE, EMILY ROSE LANSLEY; TAILOR, CLAIRE O’CONNOR; SET DESIGN, CARL HOPGOOD. PRODUCED ON LOCATION BY JN PRODUCTION. FOR DETAILS, GO TO VF.COM/CREDITS.