Yerin Ha, Katie Leung, and showrunner Jess Brownell dive deep on the leading lady’s past.
Fans meet Bridgerton Season 4’s romantic heroine just as Benedict Bridgerton (Luke Thompson) does: as the enigmatic Lady in Silver (Yerin Ha). The aristocratic second son falls head over heels for the “silver ingénue” at Violet Bridgerton’s (Ruth Gemmell) masquerade ball. It’s only at the end of Episode 1 that viewers learn the Lady in Silver is Sophie Baek, a hardworking maid. But before she ever joined the staff at Penwood House, Sophie had an entirely different identity — she lived there as the ward of Lord Penwood (Arthur Lee), her biological father.
Sophie was raised as nobility.
“Sophie is the illegitimate child of Lord Penwood. Her mother was a maid,” says Bridgerton star Ha. The earl took his daughter in with open arms, but, by calling her his “ward,” avoided the scandal of claiming Sophie as his own blood relation or progeny. Still, Lord Penwood was able to care for Sophie and raise her with all the benefits befitting her bloodline. From flashbacks, it’s clear that Sophie understood Lord Penwood was her father, despite the “ward” smokescreen.
Sophie’s doted-upon childhood changes while she is still a young girl, when the earl marries Araminta (Katie Leung), a widow. He hopes that she will accept Sophie as part of their blended family, alongside Araminta’s daughters from her first marriage, Posy (Isabella Wei) and Rosamund Li (Michelle Mao). Yet Araminta feels blindsided by her new husband’s ward, whom she can tell is actually his child. Araminta worries about what Lord Penwood’s secret means for her own daughters’ financial security in the future. “When Araminta first discovers that Sophie is Lord Penwood’s child, she is utterly devastated,” says Leung. “There’s really no question about it, because of the implications of what that means for her two daughters.”
When the earl dies, Araminta decides to keep Sophie under her roof — only no longer as a resident. Instead, Sophie must become a maid. All the trappings of society that Sophie enjoyed as her father’s ward slip away, and she’s forced to work for her step-sisters and step-mother. “Sophie’s forced to work for a family who does not treat her with the respect that the maids get at Bridgerton House, [or] even Featherington House,” says showrunner Jess Brownell. “So she’s put in this situation where she has to really think on her feet every day to survive. Araminta Gun is the lady of the house, and she has very exacting standards.”
Araminta, however, sees Sophie’s employment as a compromise: “I don’t think Araminta thinks that she’s doing it out of malice,” Leung says. “She decides to have her as a maid in the household to feed her, clothe her, put a roof over her head, which she thinks will suffice.”
However, the impact is devastating for Sophie, who has weathered the loss of both parents and a way of life. “She’s a woman who has lived through a lot and by those circumstances has had to find a way to survive,” says Brownell.
“[Sophie knows] she could be on the street with no money,” adds Ha. “It all manifests in this deep trauma, and that’s why she has her guard up. She doesn’t trust anyone who says, ‘I promise this for you,’ because that has never been true for Sophie.”
It’s Sophie’s history and subsequent scrappy attitude that, in part, inspired Ha to take on the role. “What drew me to Sophie as a character was her strong moral compass,” the actor says. “She doesn’t change who she is for anybody else. She is faced with a lot of obstacles, but she moves through them with such grace and kindness.” Will Sophie manage to wade through her trust issues to find her way back to Benedict? Watch Bridgerton Season 4, Part 1, now streaming, and circle back on Feb. 26, when Part 2 debuts, to find out!
