‘Bridgerton’ Stars Luke Thompson & Yerin Ha Unmask Benophie’s Masquerade Meet-Cute
What To Know
- Bridgerton stars Luke Thompson and Yerin Ha open up about stepping into Benedict and Sophie’s masquerade ball meet-cute.
- Production designer Alison Gartshore reveals Shakespearean influence on the highly anticipated event.
Bridgerton‘s arrival is imminent, as is the magical masquerade where Benedict (Luke Thompson) and Sophie (Yerin Ha) fall in love at first sight, setting up their own Cinderella story.
While Thompson has attended his fair share of Bridgerton balls, Ha is thrown into the deep end with the show’s most pivotal fete yet. Despite that pressure, Ha says, “The writing is so juicy, you really get to sink your teeth in that, and it’s an actor’s blessing and a joy.” As for pressure, Ha says she takes that away by focusing “more on that aspect of what’s driving these two characters.”
As fans already know, Benedict will become enchanted by Sophie’s Lady in Silver while attending the event put on by his mother, Violet (Ruth Gemmell). “It’s amazing ’cause it does really feel like sometimes you’re stepping into a bit of a fairy tale,” Ha remarks, and that’s true for Sophie as well, who hides her identity behind a mask.
“The whole conceit of the masquerade ball is that costumes or disguises release you. They actually enable both Benedict and Sophie to be way more open with each other and way more curious and maybe daring with each other than they would probably be if they just met at the Queen’s Ball wearing their usual Regency garb,” Thompson clarifies.
Liam Daniel / Netflix
As for what brings the pair together, Ha shares, “I think Benedict is drawn to Sophie in that moment of her curiosity for life and the beauty and art in life. So, I loved getting to play that part of her.”
Surrounding the masquerade theme, Thompson points out that the masking is “a really Shakespearean theme. A lot of Shakespearean comedies and tragedies actually are about how disguise frees you.”
That feeds into the ball’s overall Midsummer Night’s Dream theme, which production designer Alison Gartshore headed up. “It’s a masquerade ball, so it had to have an air of fantasy, an air of magic, so the references that we used were a lot of Midsummer Night’s Dream imagery and old paintings,” Gartshore tells us from the London-based set.
While different references were explored, like Eyes Wide Shut, Gartshore says, “a lot of the references that we found were a little bit too gothic and sort of horror orientated, playing to the dark side of masquerade, which of course, for Bridgerton, isn’t very suitable. So we felt that we had to strike a balance between the beauty of Bridgerton with a little sprinkling of magic and fairyland.”
It’s the perfect setting to stage an epic romance and to unravel new layers for the characters fans have come to know over the past several seasons. Despite Benedict’s outward confidence and nonchalance, Thompson notes, “I knew that he was a confident, relaxed person, and I think through this season you realize he is, but only up to a point. The way he has managed to operate in the world is to sort of give everyone a bit of what they want without necessarily giving too much of himself away.”
Bridgerton, Season 4, Part 1 Premiere, Thursday, January 29, Netflix
Bridgerton, Season 4, Part 2 Premiere, Thursday, February 26, Netflix
