THE first season of the Regency Netflix drama took the world by storm, and now fans are only days away from the steamy sequel. A love triangle, new characters, new romances, a game of pall mall, it’s all great fun.
On March 21, the cast and creator of Bridgerton held a press conference for their new season. The panelists were show creator Chris Van Dusen, Polly Walker (Portia Featherington), Bessie Carter (Prudence Featherington), Golda Rosheuvel (Queen Charlotte), Luke Thompson (Benedict Bridgerton), Will Tilston (Gregory Bridgerton), Luke Newton (Colin Bridgerton), Simone Ashley (Kate Sharma), Jonathan Bailey (Anthony Bridgerton), and Charithra Chandran (Edwina Sharma).
What should we expect from the new players, the Sharmas, in Season 2?
Chandran: “I like to think that they’re the audience’s perspective in that they’re not accustomed to the ton and not familiar with its dealings. They have their ideas, so they’re sort of like the audience’s advocates. And with Kate and Edwina, you see a unique sibling relationship because they only have each other. That comes with an increased dependency and higher stakes which can generate many positive things, but it can also mean that certain things can go wrong as well.”
Ashley: “There is the love triangle that represents the loving relationship between Edwina and Kate. And I think what’s so special about it is that the roles reverse throughout the series. You first see Kate being this incredibly protective sister, sometimes maybe a little too overly protective. And Edwina is obviously the diamond. I feel Kate learns a lot more from Edwina as the series goes on. Without giving any spoilers away, by episode six, I think Charithra’s performance is just so powerful and comes out with a bang. And I like that the Sharmas has a bit of mystery to them. The stakes are high for them and they have to be protective of themselves. It’s kind of like a survival act. Then you slowly get through the cracks and see what this family is about, and what’s their history is.”
Why is the game of pall-mall so beloved?
Van Dusen: “I mean, it’s classic Bridgerton. You have this amazing game on this incredible country state estate. The camaraderie amongst the family is just so real. And it’s compelling.
“Also, a large part of the season is about a game that’s happening between Kate and Anthony, and the pall-mall sequence moves that story forward in some incredible ways.”
Can any of you share a surprising fact from filming that viewers would never guess?
Van Dusen: “A lot of the show was edited in my basement. You would expect me to be in this huge state-of-the-art editing suite, but due to the pandemic, we did all the editing virtually. There was a lot of just me in my basement at home with my 18-month-old twins and four-year-old running around, and they were actually a benefit to the show because I knew if they would dance to the orchestral-pop songs that we were doing, then I knew that those songs were keepers.”
How amenable was Newton, Kate’s Corgi, to life in the ton?
Ashley: “I like that he was strong-willed and literally did whatever he wanted. My fondest memory of him is when we were filming at Aubrey Hall. Newton would just eat the pebbles at the front of the building. When you look down, he’d just be chomping away on the pebbles.”
Chandran: “And then he passed out that day because he was too full.”
Bailey: “He’s quite hard to work with, but as a bonus, he’s got an innate sense of character and I always look forward to seeing what he does next.”
Compared to series one, there’s a lot less sex in this season. Was that a deliberate decision?
Van Dusen: “It was never about quantity for us. And our approach to intimacy on the show is the same as season one. We use these intimate scenes to tell a story and to push the story forward. We’ve never done a sex scene for the sake of doing a sex scene and I don’t think we ever will. It all serves a larger purpose. It’s a different story, this season, with different characters where we’re with Anthony and Kate most of the season, and that’s very different from Daphne and Simon. That’s really part of the draw to me, the ability to tell these close-ended love stories of different characters season after season.”
Bailey: “And I think it is also a nod to the future and how people fall in love. There’s so many different ways in which people connect with their own bodies and their intimacy. I think Kate and Anthony feel explicit in the way that they feel naked in front of each other. And I think that’s a very cerebral way of exploring that sort of innate sexuality.”
Van Dusen: “Let me just say that the chemistry between these two (Anthony and Kate) is just off the charts. And, you know, there’s so much sexiness and just the looks across the room, and the hands grazing and the fingers almost touching. You can really feel that build from episode to episode, scene to scene, and when we get to the climax, the payoff is going to be well worth it.”
In this series, there’s a Bollywood cover in the soundtrack, which a lot of South Asian viewers were really excited about. How did it feel to hear that for the first time?
Chandran: “As soon as the song came on, I was like, hold on, and then rewind it and immediately pause to text Chris, being like: ‘This literally brought tears to my eyes’, because it’s the collision of both of my worlds. When you’re growing up as immigrants children, sometimes it’s so hard to figure out your identity and sometimes don’t know where you belong. That was one of those defining moments where you go: ‘Okay, I get it. I can be both, I can do both.’”
While the costumes are amazing for the show, how comfortable are they to actually wear for extended periods?
Rosheuvel: My costumes, they’re great. They’re amazing. I love them. I am double corseted. I train three times a week, I eat healthily, I drink lots of water because you have to have stamina to wear those costumes, so that the recovery days are less difficult. One got to be match fit.
Could you share with us the most embarrassing or awkward moment you’ve experienced or witnessed on set this season?
Bailey: “We obviously had amazing costumes across the board and as men, we’re not going to complain about restrictive clothing when we’re sat with the women in their corsets, but the fencing outfits were quite tight in various places. We were wearing plimsolls on quite a dewy morning on the grass. [As I was] going in for my final lunge with Benedict, my crotch ripped and it was all on camera. I think this is when you suddenly realise we’re being filmed by four different cameras. I just wanted to scream: “This is just so embarrassing.” It’s never quite as slick as you think. And it is amazing what you can do in a basement in the edit. So thanks, Chris.”
Who was the worst at breaking into fits of laughter?
Carter: “I mean, it’s either Johnny or anyone with Johnny.”
Bailey: “Chris’ writing is amazing and demands a certain level of cognitive thought. When you see one person falling off the metaphorical horse in terms of what they’re saying, you can see the twinkle in their eye, and very quickly those long scenes become really traumatic.”
Bridgerton season 2 is currently airing on Netflix.
E-VALUE: 10
ACTING: 10
PLOT: 9
