Charlotte Ritchie on surviving ‘You’ and what comes next: “I want to pursue things”

“All the tea in England couldn’t warm her.” That’s how charismatic serial killer Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) describes his very rich, very British wife Kate Lockwood-Goldberg (Charlotte Ritchie) in the fifth and final season of You.

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Ritchie joined Netflix’s hit psychological thriller in 2023 when the show relocated to London for a typically slick, ridiculous fourth season which got away with introducing hapless British aristocrats with names like Lady Phoebe Borehall-Blaxworth. Like Netflix’s other somewhat divisive staple Emily In Paris, You has always been in on the joke.

But Ritchie, a familiar face on British TV thanks to comedy roles in Fresh Meat, Ghosts and Feel Good, as well as a stint on Taskmaster, was the only Brit asked back for season five. This involved leaving London, the city where she was born and raised, for five-and-a-half months of filming in New York. “I’ve always been a bit funny about going to America [for work],” Ritchie confides when we meet at a newly opened pub in her north London neighbourhood.

It’s mid-afternoon on a weekday, so the only punters drinking are gents of a certain age, but Ritchie’s been itching to pop in because it has the “proper pub” vibe that she likes. But back to her reservations about crossing the Atlantic. “I’ve always been a bit, like, ‘Everyone says it’s great, and obviously the money is 10 times better than here, but it’s not home, is it’. And it’s not got that British sense of humour.”

Ritchie was “pleasantly surprised” by the New York grind though. “I wasn’t ready to admit that for ages,” she says. “There’s something familiar to me – and so kind of truthful and honest – about the British attitude to work: a kind of realism that is so grounding and important. But in America, that New York spirit is quite encouraging in a different way. Everyone is very ambitious, so it’s quite an inspiring place.”

“I’m not the love interest and that was quite liberating”

Ritchie also relished the opportunity to show that Kate is no longer as frosty as Joe Goldberg would have us believe. As you may recall, season four ended with Kate inheriting the family business from her one-percenter father – Joe killed him, obviously – then building a glossy new life in New York with her problematic beau. At the time, Ritchie told NME she was “deeply disappointed in Kate” for being wooed by Joe because she initially seemed so impervious to his charms.

But as season five unfolds, we see Kate’s allegiance to Joe wavering as they take different tacks in protecting the business and Joe’s young son Henry (Frankie DeMaio), whom she’s raising as her own. Both are threatened by Kate’s scheming half-sister Reagan, a new character portrayed by Pitch Perfect‘s Anna Camp, who also plays Reagan’s messy identical twin Maddie. Does You exploit the potential for sibling mistaken identity? Of course!

“Kate’s opened up because of work and motherhood,” Ritchie says. “As joyful as it was to be kind of hateful and a real bitch [in season four], it’s also really fun to show the character’s light and shade.” Kate also appears more sympathetic now because Reagan is so awful. “Reagan is pure Kate. She’s the way Kate could have gone if she didn’t thaw and find happiness [with Joe and Henry].”

Ritchie is chatty and relaxed throughout our interview. She confides that she used to tell interviewers it took her a while to “accept” the idea she wanted to become an actress. But now, after rediscovering a childhood diary, that claim is out the window.

“Literally all over it, I’d written: ‘I want to be an actress!'” she recalls. “So obviously I really did own it, but I just wanted to convince myself that it was, like, a secret.” Actually, Ritchie thinks she was “pretty precocious” from a young age: she starred in her first school play at seven and remembers thinking “this attention is awesome”. She reckons she caught the acting bug from her mother, who never did it professionally but “sort of has it in her”.

Ritchie is also perfectly happy to look back at her pre-acting gig in classical crossover group All Angels, who sang everything from popular opera pieces to Coldplay and Robbie Williams bangers. Ritchie auditioned for the four-piece in 2006 when she was just 17; later that year, their debut album stormed the UK Top 10.

“We were formed by a record label – it was the height of the classical crossover genre,” she says. “I think, honestly, they were looking to make some beautiful music but also some serious cash, because they saw a gap in the market. That might be a cynical view, but the arrangers and composers we worked with were so, so brilliant and it was a dream job for me. I was 17, singing beautiful harmonies and making proper money.”

Ritchie says she entered the music industry “with very little self-awareness” but has no regrets about her stint in All Angels, who split in 2011. “I was still at school when it started, so it almost felt like an extracurricular club,” she says. Still, she admits she’s only recently felt an “itch” to sing in public again – possibly in a stage musical. “I think I found the idea too embarrassing for about seven years [after the group], but now I’m slowly shrugging that off.”

“We all have that part of us that wants to see charismatic people do terrible things”

Still, she treads a little more carefully when talk turns to the legacy of You.  “I think it will be a very interesting time capsule,” she says, pointing to the way Joe uses social media to stalk aspiring writer Guinevere Beck (Elizabeth Lail) in season one. “Because the show feels so embedded in the current culture, it will be a fascinating historical artefact.”

This reticence is understandable given that You has been accused of “glamourising” stalking and male violence against women. Badgley told NME in 2023 that Joe is “a villain” who “becomes an antihero in a culture that is obsessed with villains”. Since it premiered on April 24, the show’s twisty and intense season finale hasn’t exactly enthralled critics, who’ve chided it for “romanticising” Goldberg and “insulting” viewers.

Ritchie says that before she joined You‘s cast, she found Badgley’s character “too creepy” to watch. But she makes a strong case for the show’s appeal and wider purpose. “We all have that part of us that wants to see charismatic people do terrible things,” she says. “There’s meant to be an outlet for that, and it’s better that it happens on a fake Netflix show than in real life, right? I’d rather that than [viewers] really worshiping a true crime criminal.”

We suggest You could also be remembered as “prophetic” – especially because of superficial similarities between Joe Goldberg and Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old American man who became something of a social media folk hero in December after being accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Like Goldberg, Mangione is immensely photogenic and dresses with a preppy flair.

Ritchie says she isn’t aware of the Mangione case, but after NME fills her in, she replies thoughtfully: “I mean, Joe didn’t come from nowhere – he’s an amalgamation of multiple men who have existed through history, The whole conceit of the show is that there are people who look like that, who get away with murder.”

However You is remembered in years to come, it already sounds like a game-changer for Ritchie because it kindled her ambition. “I had a sudden moment where I thought, ‘Maybe I do want to pursue certain things,'” she says. “Up until the last few years, I’ve just always been grateful to be working on anything that was good. But maybe with a bit of age and experience, I’ve started to go, ‘What would it look like if I chose a bit more?'”

Ritchie has already racked up plenty of good work. In her final year at Bristol University, she landed her breakthrough role in Fresh Meat, the much loved student sitcom that originally aired between 2011 and 2016. Ritchie was consistently hilarious as Oregon Shawcross, a wealthy fresher who desperately hides her privilege to fit in. “I’ll always have the softest spot for Oregon. I don’t think I was very dissimilar from her at that age.”

Since Fresh Meat, Ritchie has appeared in a range of shows that give her cross-generational recognisability: from the younger-skewing comedies Feel Good and Ghosts to cosy UK TV staples like Call The Midwife and Grantchester.

She isn’t afraid of taking the odd tangent. In 2023, she starred in an intriguingly surreal music video, ‘The Blades’ by Brighton post-punk crew Squid, despite having no prior connection to the band. Ritchie plays a woman whose fertile imagination brightens up a long wait to see a personal injury clerk. “The director just got in touch and asked – I don’t think it came from Squid,” she says. “I love having the opportunity to do different things in different formats.”

But, after getting second billing on a huge show like You, is she mainly looking for shiny lead roles now? “Although I was number two on the call sheet, I think, I’m not the love interest and that was quite liberating,” Ritchie says. She’s alluding to a key final season storyline: Joe’s frisson with mysterious newcomer Bronte (Madeline Brewer).

“And I just did another show where I just came in for a supporting role, which was so satisfying,” Ritchie continues. “I’m sure if I increasingly get smaller parts, I’ll find I’m a bit less gracious about it. But for now, I do feel like it’s a range of experiences I’m looking for, not specific ones.”

‘You’ season five is streaming now on Netflix

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