Jess Brownell chats with The Hollywood Reporter about bringing a unique retelling of the classic Cinderella story to the hit Netflix series with Luke Thompson and Yerin Ha, and weaving in all the other Bridgerton family drama.
While Netflix‘s Bridgerton is known for its scandalous Regency-era gossip and intimate storylines, the newly arrived fourth season also delivers a new element with its classic Cinderella fairytale love story.
The first half of the two-part season that released Thursday centers on Benedict Bridgerton (Luke Thompson), who has been a playboy, avoiding settling down. However, when he meets a captivating Lady in Silver at his mother’s masquerade ball, his perspective changes.
Benedict sets out to uncover the young lady’s identity. But as the beloved fairytale goes, it’s a bit more complicated, as his mystery woman is actually Sophie Baek (Yerin Ha), a maid working for the formidable Lady of the house, Araminta Gun (Katie Leung). When fate ultimately brings Benedict and Sophie back together, he wrestles with his affection for this intriguing maid and the fantasy of the Lady in Silver, completely unaware that they’re the same person.
“With the Cinderella story, it was all about how we take a classic damsel in distress setup and play with the romance that is inherent in the trope while giving more independence and agency to the female character,” showrunner Jess Brownell tells The Hollywood Reporter of the new season. “It was about finding ways for Sophie to be a really strong lead and for Benedict to have to work to earn her.”
As Benedict and Sophie’s journey ignites in Part 1, the other Bridgertons are also getting down and dirty in their own antics — Colin (Luke Newton) and Penelope (Nicola Coughlan) are enjoying newlywed bliss (“Those two never met a moment of transportation that didn’t turn them on,” the showrunner quips), Francesca (Hannah Dodd) is on a path to self-discovery amid her marriage to John (Victor Alli), and Lady Violet Bridgerton (Ruth Gemmell) is finally giving in to her desires.
Below, Brownell unpacks Part 1, including elements of the classic Cinderella story, ongoing yearning between Benedict and Sophie, their time together in the countryside and that steamy scene at the end of episode four. She also teases what’s ahead in Part 1, which releases Feb. 26.
Season three was your first time showrunning Bridgerton. Following the success of last season, did you approach this season with more confidence?
I definitely felt a new confidence — a new sense of ease managing a team and managing production. The biggest change between last season and this season is that I’ve been delegating a lot more, especially in my writers room. Everyone is responsible for their own episode and was really proud of what everyone brought to the page.
How much did you enjoy playing into the classic Cinderella story this season, while also weaving in differences that make the story its own unique retelling?
One of my favorite parts of writing in the romance genre is trying to find ways to honor the tropes while modernizing them and, at times, flipping them on their head. The Cinderella story was all about how we take a classic damsel in distress setup and play with the romance inherent in the trope, while giving more independence and agency to the female character. It was about finding ways for Sophie to be a really strong lead and for Benedict to have to work to earn her.
Did you feel pressure, since the Cinderella story is one of the most beloved fairy tales and has been adapted many times before?
We did talk about that in the [writers] room, and we rewatched the Disney movie. We watched Ever After, and we were finding ways to make sure that we were differentiating so that it didn’t feel like we were ripping off what had already been done.
One big difference from the classic story is that Sophie’s evil stepmother, Lady Araminta (Katie Leung), figures out she was at the ball quite quickly in the season, and kicks Sophie out of their house. Why include that so early on?
I mean, that’s in An Offer from a Gentleman, Julia Quinn’s book. Araminta does find out fairly quickly what Sophie was up to, and it was important for us to get Sophie out of that house as quickly as possible, because I feel like the story really gets going once she and Benedict re-meet.
How much fun was it working with Yerin Ha this season and bringing her into the Bridgerton family?
Yerin’s incredible. We had the best time with her. She brought so much enthusiasm to the role. She was reading diaries of housemates from the 1800s, and I can’t talk enough about her physical comedy. She’s an actress with a lot of depth, but she has this physical body comedy that is so funny. I would be on set sometimes and I’d have to remind myself not to laugh out loud so I didn’t ruin a take. I find her hilarious.
Until this season, Benedict has been a playboy compared to his brothers. Why is this mysterious woman behind the mask the one making him get serious about finally settling down?
Benedict’s at a place in his life where he’s becoming jaded because he’s done and seen everything. And what’s really exciting about Sophie for him, or the masked woman when he first meets her, is that she has this childlike wonder that reconnects Benedict to his own sense of playfulness. Then when he re-meets Sophie, he sees a different side of her, which is that she’s someone who is very principled who knows herself very well, has a strong work ethic, clear goals, and that’s another thing that Benedict really needs to work on. It’s a really fun love triangle this season between the masked woman and Sophie. One represents what Benedict wants, the other represents what he needs, and when he hopefully eventually figures out that they’re the same woman, it’s a dynamite combination.
There’s almost a love triangle trope hidden within the season.
We talked a lot about how the theme of the season is fantasy vs. reality, and the Lady in Silver representing the fantasy and Sophie representing the reality, but then both characters realizing that love lives in between fantasy and reality, and that they have to meet in the middle in order to find true love.
When Benedict and Sophie first meet at the ball, the moment is sweet but also quite humorous. Can you talk to me about bringing those scenes to life?
The gazebo scene was huge for us because you have to have two characters deeply fall in love within the span of only a few minutes. We really had to think hard about what it us that both of these characters are missing in their lives that they can feel instantaneously in the other person, and what are the circumstances that are going to create the ultimate romantic fantasy for both of them? Especially for Sophie, who’s been living in the downstairs world, to get to have a dance lesson with a Bridgerton underneath the gazebo with all those flowers trellising down. It was about working with all of our departments to visually create a very magical moment as well as on the page.
Throughout Part 1, while Benedict is looking for his Cinderella from the ball, he also sparks a connection with Sophie later on, not realizing who she is. Why is he not making the connection, especially since he has a picture of her lips and voice in his mind?
It is a little bit of willing suspension of disbelief, but the big thing that we are relying on is the fact that class made servants invisible in that day and age. Even for someone like Benedict, who thinks of himself as being pretty progressive, he would never expect a maid to have been at a ball. It wouldn’t make sense, and it’s something he’s going to have to answer for in the back half, that he wasn’t able to recognize her. If part one is really about the fantasy, part two is in many ways the reality section of the season.
Can you talk about episode three and how you went about building so much tension between Benedict and Sophie during their time in the countryside without rushing it?
Kathy Liu, one of my writers, wrote episode three. She did such a fantastic job building tension, but also exploring Sophie and Benedict’s characters, because we’re in a bit of a bottle episode where they’re away from society. We really get the chance for them to get to know each other and for us as viewers to get to know who they are. Sophie is wearing the dress of nobility. She’s not working as a servant, and they get to just be equals for a moment out in the countryside. But of course, all of that gets taken away the second they get back to London in episode four.
In episode four, it seems like Benedict is starting to fall for Sophie. But then he ends up just asking her to be his mistress at the end of the episode. Do you think he could really love her if he knew she was the woman from the ball, given that she’s a maid?
It’s a good question. Benedict is a romantic at heart, but he is also someone who has never pushed himself to do anything truly scary. He’s never committed in a really deep way, and something we’re playing with a lot this season is courage and the idea that because Benedict has never committed to something, he’s not built a sense of confidence in his own courage. For a gentleman to love a maid in that era, it required stepping out of the rules of society and potentially ostracizing oneself. If he is going to love her in a public way, it’s going to require a tremendous amount of courage, and that’s what we’re asking of him in the back half.
Can you talk about bringing that steamy moment between them alive at the very end of Part 1, but then deciding to end it in disappointment for Sophie?
In terms of the intimacy, the season shares a bit more DNA with season two. It is about longing and yearning, and there is a tremendous obstacle between the two of them. It felt right for us to delay the intimacy a bit. Sophie is also incredibly principled and she’s not a character who’s easily going to give in, especially considering the circumstances of her birth. But I will say that part two has some very juicy offerings in the intimacy department, so I think it’ll be worth the wait.
Now that everyone knows Penelope is Lady Whistledown, how do you go about keeping that exciting, even though the mystery is gone? Do you think Penn regrets revealing her identity, especially with the Queen constantly bossing her around?
I don’t think Penn regrets it. It was really necessary for her growth as a young woman to own who she is, and we’re going to watch her over the course of this season have to take more and more accountability for what she writes. But she’s definitely put in a difficult position this season, and the walls are closing in a bit in terms of the pressure from the Queen, the criticism from the people who are being written about. So there’s a real challenge for her in the back half.
Given that fans still love Penelope and Colin from season three, how did you go about weaving in their story, including this new spicy carriage scene? Was that purposeful, given that everyone loved that scene from last season?
It’s fan service to a degree. We love the idea that those two never met a moment of transportation that didn’t turn them on (laughs). But it’s really important for us to continue exploring the past season’s lead in the current season. With the Penelope and Colin story, it was easy to tie that in this season because it is also about courage in a lot of ways, and how Penelope has to be pretty brave given the circumstances she’s under. So there’s that nice thematic connection.
After all the ups and downs from last season, was it fun just to write a happy storyline between them this season?
One-hundred percent. It was the same way I felt about writing Anthony and Kate in season three. You just want to live in the joy for our couples after they’ve gone through the struggle of their main season.
Francesca was also undergoing a lot of self-discovery in Part 1 amid her marriage to John. How do you navigate including these moments, setting up her journey to love in potential future seasons?
We were really excited to focus a little bit more on Francesca and John’s relationship, especially in part one. If we’re looking at the season through the lens of courage as a theme, Francesca is someone struggles to understand herself and really look inward in a deep way. But she’s taking baby steps this season and finding her orgasm and figuring out what turns her on, and how to be honest about it is a big part of that journey for her.
We also see Lady Violet Bridgerton (Ruth Gemmell) finally giving in to exploring this romantic spark she’s had with Lord Marcus Anderson. Why is now the right time for that, after she’s been trying to stay loyal to her late husband and friendship with Lady Danbury for several seasons?
She still has a few kids at home, so she’s not all the way there yet in terms of being an empty nester. But it felt like after four seasons, we didn’t want to send the message that just because someone has had children that they don’t deserve to feel desired or act on their desires. It had been building with Lord Anderson (Daniel Francis) and it was ready to explode. I was really delighted to see those scenes. I thought Ruth and Daniel did a fantastic job.
Violet’s been through a lot the last four seasons. She’s given some epic speeches to her children and had a lot of failed conversations about sex. So maybe her actually having some sex will allow her to be a little bit better about those conversations.
For Sophie and her new job working for the Bridgertons, things seem to be turning for the better at the end of Part 1, but then it ends on a cliffhanger with the Penwoods moving in next door. How is that going to complicate things in Part 2?
Not to get too technical, but when we were talking about Sophie’s journey, she has the plot goal of really wanting to find a great place to work and a great employer, and she finds that in working for Lady Bridgeton. But it directly conflicts with her deeper need, which is to find love and family and allow herself to let her walls down. The Penwoods moving in next door is certainly going to threaten that plot goal just as she’s settling into working for the Bridgertons. Obviously, this big threat is right next door, and then her feelings for Benedict are also a huge threat to that security.
Out of all the Bridgerton seasons so far, what do you think makes this season stand out and special on its own?
Every season has a different tone slightly. Last season was all about the rom-com. This year is really about a fairytale sensibility, and I don’t think we’ve had that feeling before on the show. And even though it’s a fairytale feeling, ultimately the story is about needing to step out of the fairytale. I really like where the season goes in the back half and the way we’re able to nuance that.
What else can you tease? Will viewers see Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) and Kate (Simone Ashley) again?
Yes! Kate and Anthony are on their way back from India as we speak, so we will absolutely be seeing them in the back half. Anthony is a reality check for his younger brother, as he often has been. So Benedict has some reckoning to do in the back half, and certainly, the stakes are higher for Sophie. So the stakes are rising, but so is the thirst and those two things are going to come to a head-on collision.
