A month after US entertainment site Variety leaked the news, Korean-Australian actress Yerin Ha was officially announced as the female lead for the next season of Netflix’s hit Regency-period drama, Bridgerton.
For many fans (including yours truly), the September 11 announcement was one long in the making. Rumours had swirled for months that those in charge of casting on the show were looking for an actress of East Asian or Southeast Asian heritage to play Sophie, the plucky, Cinderella-like heroine of An Offer from a Gentleman, the Julia Quinn novel on which the fourth season of Bridgerton is based.
Each book in the series focuses on the romantic story of one of the eight Bridgerton siblings.
Eagle-eyed fans on Reddit, X and beyond kept tabs on who the series’ actors, actresses, make-up artists, costume designers and other crew members were following on Instagram.
Potential candidate lists for Sophie were drawn up and discussed – among them Japanese actress Haruka Abe, American actress Kirstin Louie and Hong Kong-born British actress Jemma Moore – and hotly contested.
Fan favourites like British actresses Gemma Chan, of Crazy Rich Asians and Marvel’s The Eternals fame, and Katie Leung – perhaps most well-known for her turn as Ravenclaw witch Cho Chang in the Harry Potter film series – were thrown into the mix, although it felt like it was mostly for flavour (Chan, in particular, seems far too big a name for the show).
While Leung did not get the role of Sophie, she has been cast as society mama Araminta Gun (Araminta Gunningworth in the book).
Araminta is ambitious and scheming, someone who places her two daughters above the needs of Sophie, ward-turned-maid and the unacknowledged, illegitimate daughter of her second husband, the deceased Lord Gun.
Much like in the Cinderella fairy tale, Sophie is gifted a chance to attend a ball in disguise in a silver dress and mask, where she catches the attention of Benedict Bridgerton (played by Luke Thompson), who quickly falls for her before she has to beat a hasty retreat.
Unlike in the fairy tale, what follows – or should, if it is the same as the book – is Benedict also falling in love with Sophie the maid, who he has no idea is also his mysterious Lady in Silver.
While Bridgerton is broadcast on Netflix, the production company behind the period drama is Shondaland, founded by television writer and producer Shonda Rhimes.
Rhimes, who created Grey’s Anatomy, is known for “colour-blind casting” her shows, which means casting actors and actresses in roles without specifying a particular race.
In a 2013 interview with American newspaper USA Today, casting director Linda Lowy said: “When I cast the pilot of Grey’s [Anatomy], Shonda didn’t give anybody a last name. She just said, ‘Linda, I want you to cast it the way you see the world.’” This resulted in a diverse, multiracial cast for which the medical drama has become well known.
Season four of Bridgerton is not the first season to feature an Asian lead. Season two, which focused on Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey), the oldest sibling, saw him fall in love with Kate Sharma, played by Simone Ashley, a British actress of Indian descent.
While fans of the book on which season two was based – The Viscount Who Loved Me – were initially thrown by the casting choice, everyone soon came to love Ashley’s Kate, who is just as sharp, clever and wonderful as the book’s Kate Sheffield.
It is a delight to be able to visually identify with characters in a world setting that is so universally loved.
British period dramas typically do not feature anyone other than Caucasian people – look at shows like Pride and Prejudice, Downton Abbey and Outlander. This is, of course, reflective of their setting.
The Bennets, Darcys and Bingleys of Jane Austen’s world did not interact with other races, nor do the Crawleys of Downton Abbey, set in the English country of Yorkshire.
Bridgerton offers a break from the traditional, predominantly white cast of historical dramas by setting everything in an alternate London, where the appointment of a German-born queen of African descent elevates other people of colour into high society and the ranks of nobility.
Naysayers to the casting of Ha as Sophie Beckett – or Sophie Baek, as she will be known on the show – cling to the book’s original descriptors of the character having blonde hair and green eyes as proof that the show has been “ruined”. More than one commenter on social media claims they will not be watching the show (to which I say, the internet is not an airport and there is no need to announce your departure).
For the most part, however, the reaction to the casting has been positive.
“Welcome to the Bridgerton family,” enthused one Instagram user. “Welcome to the ton [meaning high-class society], Sophie Baek!” wrote another.
As to whether Masali Baduza, who has been cast as Michaela Stirling – the gender-bent version of Michael Stirling from When He Was Wicked, the sixth novel in the series – will be quite as warmly welcomed remains to be seen.
I will be rooting for her, anyway.
