After breaking out with her lead role in the second season of Netflix’s smash hit series Bridgerton, Simone Ashley has moved on to star in This Tempting Madness, a new indie directed by Jennifer E. Montgomery, from her script written with husband Andrew M. Davis, which just wrapped production in Los Angeles.
Inspired by a true story, This Tempting Madness is an elevated psychological thriller about a young woman (Ashley) who awakens from a coma grievously injured, memory fractured, her husband arrested. But as she puts together the pieces of her past, she starts to question her own actions — and her perception of reality.
Producers include Montgomery and Davis for their Smoke Jumper Films; Mango Monster Productions; Jessica Malanaphy and Marcei Brown for CatchLight Studios; and William Day Frank. Coming from a background as a cinematographer, Davis will also be lensing the film.
In the second season of Bridgerton, based on the hugely popular Julia Quinn romance novels, Ashley was introduced as Kate Sharma, who’s courted by Viscount Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey) upon her arrival in London from India. For a moment snatching the record of the most-watched English-language series in Netflix history, with 251.7M hours viewed in its first seven days, the season was celebrated for breaking a race barrier with Ashley’s character, whose ethnicity was changed from the books so that her family would be of Indian descent.
Set to reprise the role in Season 3, Ashley has also recently appeared in Disney’s live-action reimagining of The Little Mermaid, as Ariel’s sister, Indira. Otherwise best known for her role as Olivia on Netflix’s BAFTA-winning series Sex Education, she also boasts credits including Pokémon Detective Pikachu (Warner Bros), Broadchurch (BBC America) and C.B. Strike (Cinemax), to name a few. The actress is represented by Identity Agency Group, CAA, and Myman Greenspan Fox.
