{"id":12501,"date":"2022-03-20T10:00:08","date_gmt":"2022-03-20T09:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1605824"},"modified":"2022-03-20T10:36:09","modified_gmt":"2022-03-20T09:36:09","slug":"bridgerton-cast-talk-season-2-sex-scenes-and-lavish-set-designs","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/bridgerton-cast-talk-season-2-sex-scenes-and-lavish-set-designs\/","title":{"rendered":"Bridgerton cast talk season 2, sex scenes and lavish set designs"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Kirsty Lang\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Sunday, 20 March 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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Consider the ton well and truly ready for the return of Bridgerton as season 2 lands on Netflix on 25th March.<\/p>\n

With everyone desperate to read more from Lady Whistledown and her scandalous gossip, Radio Times magazine spoke with lead star Jonathan Bailey, who plays Anthony Bridgerton, about sex scenes and how he feels with the spotlight well and truly on him.<\/p>\n

If that\u2019s not enough, Radio Times also caught up with sisters from the Sharma family, Simone Ashley and Charithra Chandran about what we can expect from the newcomers on the scene.<\/p>\n

Without further ado, prepare to enter the world of Bridgerton once more below.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Bailey: \u2018Dance scenes and sex scenes help propel the narrative forward\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

By: Kirsty Lang<\/strong><\/p>\n

Prepare yourself for heaving breasts, rakish behaviour and plenty of ballroom dancing. The Bridgertons are back. The much-anticipated second season opens on a shot of their wisteria-covered London mansion. There are horses and carriages waiting to take the eight siblings and their mother to court for the annual debutantes\u2019 ball. It is 1814, but there is no mention of the Napoleonic Wars or the Congress of Vienna. All eyes are on Anthony Bridgerton. The young Viscount has decided to give up cavorting with actresses and opera singers and settle down. Once inside the well-upholstered carriage with his younger brothers, he explains he will be drawing up a list of suitable debutantes and that his intended must be \u201ctolerable, suitable, have good child-bearing hips and half a brain\u201d.<\/p>\n

When Bridgerton<\/a>, based on the Regency romance novels by Julia Quinn, launched on Netflix<\/a> over Christmas 2020, it soon became the streaming service\u2019s biggest original series, viewed by 82 million households in the first four weeks. The conscious casting of Black and brown actors as British aristocrats turned the conventional world of period drama on its head. This was something radically new, attracting viewers from around the world not used to seeing themselves represented on screen in corsets and bonnets.<\/p>\n

There was some disappointment among fans when they learnt that the dishy Duke of Hastings (played by Reg\u00e9-Jean Page), who married Anthony\u2019s younger sister Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor), would not be returning for a second season. But Netflix says the intention was always to mirror the format of Quinn\u2019s novels \u2013 there will be a one-season arc for each of the eight Bridgerton siblings as they enter the marriage market.<\/p>\n

Anthony Bridgerton is played by 33-year-old Jonathan Bailey, a familiar face on British TV from his roles in W1A and Broadchurch, and an award-winning stage actor. I meet him in the evening as he emerges from rehearsals for a West End play. Mike Bartlett\u2019s Cock is about a gay man who is torn after falling in love with a woman and Bailey is playing the lead. Are there any parallels with his role in Bridgerton? \u201cNone at all,\u201d he says, laughing. Bailey is gay, but in keeping with the Bridgerton ethos is playing a straight romantic lead. Was that deliberate on the part of the producers? \u201cNo. My sexuality never came up in my initial conversations with them. I don\u2019t think it was ever an issue,\u201d says Bailey.<\/p>

He knew from the moment he was first cast that he would play the lead in season 2. \u201cI\u2019d read the book so I knew my character, Anthony, would have a lot of stuff to deal with and it would be an interesting progression.\u201d The Viscount is a classic Mr Rochester. He\u2019s brooding and arrogant and in this new season finds himself at the heart of a love triangle with two Indian sisters, Edwina and Kate Sharma, newly arrived from Bombay. \u201cIt\u2019s interesting to get behind these Heathcliff and Darcy characters and explore why romantic male figures are so harsh and toxic towards women,\u201d says Bailey.<\/p>\n

His mentor going into this second season was Dynevor. Having played the lead herself, she advised Bailey \u201cto get fit, eat healthily and get as much sleep as possible\u201d because he\u2019d be working 14 to 15 hours a day. \u201cPhoebe was great at counselling me, because it\u2019s not something you can explain to your friends and family, who you don\u2019t see for weeks on end. Filming after the success of the first season and during a pandemic made it particularly intense.\u201d Bailey has now written a notebook that he\u2019ll pass on to his successor: \u201cIt\u2019s a Bridgerton guide for the next sibling who plays the lead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Netflix has spared no expense in making their English costume drama, with a reported budget of $7 million per episode, and the production is epic in scale. Fifty per cent of the show is shot on location in palaces and grand country houses including Hampton Court, Wilton House in Salisbury and Windsor Great Park. The other 50 per cent is shot in a purpose-built studio in Uxbridge on the outskirts of London. Arriving there for a set visit in the autumn, I thought I\u2019d got the wrong address because from the outside it looks like an industrial estate with colossal warehouses. Once inside, though, I felt like I\u2019d walked through the wardrobe into a Narnia version of Regency Bath or London, with cobbled streets and elegant mansions.<\/p>\n

I was shown around by the production designer Will Hughes-Jones, who oversees teams of highly skilled carpenters, drapers, set painters and prop buyers. We began our tour at the home of the Featherington family. Opening their large blue front door with its ornate knocker was like walking into a real house, with carpets, stucco walls, chandeliers, thick swags of fabric draped over the windows and lots of ornate furniture. \u201cThe Featheringtons are very blingy \u2013 they\u2019re the Kardashians of the series \u2013 so they want the latest thing,\u201d says Hughes-Jones, who has done huge amounts of research into the period to get every detail right. \u201cThere was a very fashionable Regency designer called Thomas Hope who was into black and gold. He was the Versace of his day, and we have remade furniture from his original catalogues.\u201d<\/p>\n

\""Jonathan\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Liam Daniel \/ Netflix<\/i> <\/span>\n<\/div>\n

Apart from the attention to detail, the other striking aspect of the set is the scale of the rooms, which are very spacious, with high ceilings, partly because they need to look grand but also big enough to accommodate the cameras. There can be 500 people on set for the ballroom scenes, which can take up to five days to shoot.<\/p>\n

The first ball of season 2 is particularly spectacular, as it was filmed in the Great Conservatory at Syon House in west London. Because it\u2019s under the Heathrow flight path, they had to film in the middle of the night. With 100 extras and a Steadicam operator following his every step, Bailey couldn\u2019t afford to put a foot wrong. \u201cLast year I was at the back of the shot, sipping lemonade and giggling with my on-screen brothers during the ball scenes. This time I had to focus, but when we finally stepped out onto the dancefloor it did feel like a performance.\u201d This shouldn\u2019t have proved a problem for Bailey, who won a best supporting actor Olivier award in 2019 for his role in the West End revival of the Stephen Sondheim musical, Company.<\/p>\n

Bailey says his two biggest challenges were the dancing and the sex scenes, which, in his words, are \u201cthe heart of the show\u201d. He had private sessions with the choreographer Jack Murphy, who worked with him on illustrating Anthony\u2019s character through dance: \u201cI think the dance scenes and the sex scenes help propel the narrative forward and you can see relationships change as characters dance together.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the sex scenes \u2013 of which there are many \u2013 Bridgerton employs an intimacy coordinator. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing how that whole industry has just come on, even in a year. There are new tricks to the trade \u2013 little cushions \u2013 and it\u2019s amazing what you can do with a half-inflated netball,\u201d he says. My brow furrows with confusion. What exactly do you do with a half-inflated netball? \u201cWell, if there are two people doing a sex scene, the rule is they must have three barriers separating them and there are certain acts where a half-inflated netball can allow for movement without having to connect physically. It\u2019s pretty silly really and we have some hilarious moments, but it makes it less awkward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bailey grew up in a large, close-knit family in Oxford, so he understands the Bridgerton sibling dynamics. \u201cI\u2019m the youngest of four, which is something I spoke about with [the showrunner] Chris Van Dusen when we first met. I think it gives me a perspective of what being the oldest is like. But the difference between me and Anthony is I\u2019m the only boy and I\u2019m really close to my three sisters. Family is so important,\u201d he says with feeling. Is that one of the things that attracted him to the series? \u201cAbsolutely. What can go wrong with a big lavish fantasy show which is essentially about family?\u201d<\/p>\n

\""Radio\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n

Simone Ashley: <\/strong>\u00a0\u2018I did a bootcamp to learn to horse ride for Bridgerton\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

By: Kelly-Anne Taylor<\/strong><\/p>\n

Couples locking eyes across ballrooms or stealing brief glances over pianofortes seem archaic in comparison to Bridgerton\u2019s reimagining of Regency England. The cast is diverse, the costumes are vibrant, the Bridgerton soundtrack<\/a> consists of classical covers of chart-topping hits and there is a lot (and I mean a lot) of steamy sex.<\/p>\n

Season 1 ended with Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor) and the Duke of Hastings (Reg\u00e9-Jean Page) happily settled into married life \u2013 and now the spotlight falls on Viscount Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey), the eldest of the Bridgerton clan, as he sets out to find a dutiful wife. His head is turned by Edwina Sharma (Charithra Chandran), an educated, stunning young woman who ticks all his boxes (ie she\u2019s unassuming, malleable and devoted). However, something stands in Anthony\u2019s way and it comes in the form of Kate Sharma, Edwina\u2019s older sister, an unashamedly opinionated woman who doesn\u2019t think Anthony is a suitable match for her sister.<\/p>\n

Taking on the role of Kate is Simone Ashley, whom you may recognise from Sex Education, as the vain Olivia. And it was, in fact, her role in Netflix\u2019s hit teen drama that caught the eye of Bridgerton\u2019s showrunner, Chris Van Dusen.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t a long audition process. It all happened so quickly,\u201d she explains over Zoom. \u201cIt\u2019s only recently that the penny has dropped. The first season of Bridgerton came out and everyone was talking about it. Within two weeks I was auditioning for the role of Kate \u2013 I self-taped, met Johnny [Bailey] and then I got the part. Before I knew it I was in wig fittings and at horse-riding training.\u201d<\/p>\n

Everything is about to change for the 26-year-old Ashley, who was born in Surrey and at 16 moved to London, where she couch-surfed while trying to break into the industry. She completed nine months of a three-year course at drama school before quitting, travelling to LA and landing her first role. Praise has been attributed to Bridgerton for its diverse casting, but the lack of representation on screen never fazed Ashley when it came to achieving her own goals.<\/p>\n