Bridgerton Season 4: Behind-the-scenes secrets of the production process
Yerin Ha initially had doubts about playing Sophie in Bridgerton as she was worried her British accent wasn’t up to scratch
Australian actor Yerin Ha has admitted she was surprised to land the role of Sophie because she thought her attempts at a British accent were “terrible.”
Speaking to InStyle, she said that even after she landed a chemistry read with Luke Thompson over Zoom, she still thought there was no way she’d get the role.
“I just assumed that he probably had a day full of auditions, and he must be tired,” she recalled. “So I didn’t want to waste his time. I didn’t even really have chit-chat. I just got straight into the scene.”
Fortunately, Luke didn’t share her feelings about the Zoom call, and remembers their chemistry read very differently.
“I just remember feeling, despite the artifice of an audition, the Zoom delay, and shaky internet connection, that we were actually talking to each other,” he explained.
The Bridgerton writing team changed Sophie’s original surname to reflect Yerin Ha’s background
In Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton book series, Sophie’s surname is Beckett. In the show, they switch it to Baek to honour Yerin’s own background.
Yerin revealed that the showrunner Jess Brownell asked the actor if there were any Korean names that start with B, so there was still a connection to the character from the books, with the actor offering up Baek, feeling it was a seamless swap.
“I was just super appreciative of her changing the last name so that it fits with my identity and my culture and how I look,” Yerin told Elle.
“For some people, it might feel like a small thing, but for a production of that size to mold a character to me really empowered me.”
Benedict Bridgerton’s glow-up for season 4 was a subtle one
In the past, when a Bridgerton brother becomes the main focal point of a series, they usually get a glow-up and a new wardrobe to make them more leading-man-ready.
For Benedict, this transformation was more subtle than those of his brothers – although there were some subtle shifts.
Costume designer John Glaser told The Kit that Benedict’s wardrobe was inspired by 1980s New Romantics, making use of sheer fabrics and frilled collars.
“This season we’ve taken the men and we Gucci’d them up,” he joked.
In an interview with Vogue, Glaser explained that his wardrobe was also inspired by Joseph Fiennes in Shakespeare In Love.
The kite scene was the first that Luke Thompson and Yerin Ha filmed together
While their masquerade ball meeting was what set the ball rolling for their characters, this was not the first time that Yerin and Luke were on set together.
In fact, episode three’s kite-flying sequence was the first scene the duo filmed together, something they have admitted to feeling relieved about, because it allowed them to let their walls down and relax into the characters.
“The weather was beautiful. I was wearing Daphne’s borrowed dress. I felt really beautiful. I felt like Cinderella,” Yerin told Town & Country.
“That’s really where Benedict and Sophie’s relationship blossoms,” she also told Tudum. “It’s a parallel between Luke and me, because that’s where our friendship started to blossom as co-stars. I have a nostalgic, sentimental attachment to that place now.”
Bridgerton’s racy staircase scene was much less sexy to film in real life than it appeared on screen…
Bridgerton is known for its sex scenes, and season four was no different.
In the first half of the season, Benedict and Sophie have in an intimate moment in a stairwell – in what served as a metaphor for the class divide between them.
This may have looked steamy on screen, but the atmosphere on set was apparently a lot less sexy.
“What we actually did is we both got ill. But different scenes. We kept falling ill!” Luke told E! News.
Yerin added: “We were very mentally a little bit weak, a little bit nervous, my immune system was down…”
…And, for that matter, so was Bridgerton season 4’s infamous bathtub scene
Benedict and Sophie’s bathtub sequence was one of the most anticipated moments of Bridgerton season four.
Luke and Yerin have admitted that the scene was an especially slippery one to film – namely because production kept putting oil in the water.
“We were like two seals, because they kept pouring in this thing to make it milky, but I think it had oil in it,” Luke explained to Refinery29.
Yerin also revealed that, at just 5’2”, the long bathtub prop presented its own issues, with Luke joking: “She kept floating down the river. We had to sort of brace a little bit.”
It wasn’t just oil and the depth of the bathtub that caused issues for the actors, though.
“I put baby powder all on me because I was told it would help dry my skin to put the intimacy wear on with my tape,” Yerin recalled to Capital Breakfast.
“And then, basically, the next day, after the bathtub, I got hives all over my body, and I got folliculitis, so I needed steroid cream!”