‘Bridgerton’: Cast Was Warned to ‘Go Easy on Bedposts’ During Sex Scenes
Season 1 of Bridgerton largely focused on the relationship between Daphne Bridgerton and The Duke of Hastings, Simon Basset. In the beginning, the show was full of longing glances and innocent touches but as Daphne matured, so did the show. As fans of Bridgerton know, there were a few scenes that got pretty steamy. The cast was reportedly told to take it easy during those scenes.
Daphne and Simon’s journey
When Daphne and Simon first met, neither was too thrilled about the other. Daphne thought Simon was arrogant and probably a player since he was such good friends with her older brother Anthony. But after most of her marriage proposals had dried up, Daphne’s best option was to make a deal with Simon to pretend to court so that more men would be interested in her. As time went on, she started to fall for Simon.
Daphne’s growing relationship with Simon mirrored her own growth as a woman in a way. When she met Simon, she was an innocent girl who didn’t even know how babies were made. By the end, she began making decisions for herself, taking control of what she wanted, and even had her own baby.
How did the sex scenes get made?
Sex scenes can be taboo in serious shows. If they are too risque, they take over the show and can cheapen it’s value. In filming the intimate scenes, director Julie Anne Robinson wanted to make sure everyone felt comfortable.
“I felt that it was very very important for the actors to feel comfortable with these scenes, and to feel confident,” she told Deadline. “And also there is so much learning in terms of costumes that we had to do in terms what to take off when and where.”
To ensure the scenes went perfectly, they hired Lizzy Talbot as the intimacy coordinator.
“I would rehearse with the actors, we would talk through the scene in detail, and we would decide what story was that the scene was telling,” Robinson said. “Then Lizzy, who I trust immensely, went away, and it was almost like a stunt rehearsal. I would be doing dance sequence in the room next door, they would be doing an intimacy rehearsal. Lizzy would say, ‘Hey we are ready, we’ve got something to show you’. I would go in, I would look at what they did, and I would be specific about changes that I wanted just in the same way as I would be with a fight sequence and a stunt coordinator.”
They would rework the scenes until they told the story that Robinson had in her head.
“I was very proud of that because all that anybody talks about is the sex — undesirably by the way — but for me as a director, it was a storytelling challenge because it was about something but you couldn’t talk about and you couldn’t see, it was very delicate, and each scene had to tell a story,” she said. “We achieved that; to get the nuances of those scenes right was my challenge as a director, and I was proud of the result.”
‘Bridgerton’ actors had to be careful of the furniture
In keeping with the period esthetic of Bridgerton, the scenes were shot in older homes, which had certain restrictions.
“When you go into a country house, there is far less flexibility than you can ever imagine, you can’t move the bed, you can’t move the painting, you can’t move the wardrobe, and you have to be quite delicate with the furniture,” Robinson said.
When they filmed in the Duke’s bedroom, which was in Castle Howard, room monitors had to be in the room to make sure nothing was disturbed.
“We would be shooting a sex scene and they would say, can you go easy on the bed, go easy on the bedpost,” Robinson said.
