It may have taken a while for the debut of Shonda Rhimes’ first Netflix series, but it certainly made an impression when it launched on the streaming service on December 25. Bridgerton, a warm regency-era drama about a large, prosperous London family – and, in the first season, the eldest daughter’s romance with a duke apparently carved out of marble – was not necessarily a family option for Christmas Day entertainment.
Although the series has a “Jane AustenGossip Girl vibration, “how The Hollywood Reporter The TV review Inkoo King wrote in his review: the drama follows as many clues from the novels on which it was based as from the combination of Shondaland’s melodrama and humor (see Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal) The first four episodes are relatively safe to watch in mixed company, but since Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor) and Simon, the Duke of Hastings (Regé-Jean Page) get married in episode five, it is decidedly an adult-only affair.
The most mature moment comes when the pair begins to christen every room on their new property, a montage of sex featuring the couple having sex in the library, in the gazebo, in the rain, in a stone courtyard, against a statue, all ready to an orchestral version of the single “Wildest Dreams” by Taylor Swift in 2015.
And while the sequel lasts only about three minutes (no jokes about the Duke’s exploits, promise), preparation and production took months of collaboration between series showrunner Chris Van Dusen, episode six director (and pilot) Julie Anne Robinson, intimacy coordinator Lizzy Talbot and stars Dynevor and Page.
“I don’t think I ever spent as many days on the set as I did Bridgerton, “Talbot said THR. She has worked as a lawyer and intimacy coordinator since 2015 in cinema, TV and theater. His process for each sex scene on the show included telephone conversations with the creative team and the actors, rehearsals in advance and also on the day of the presentation, and facilitating conversations about what the actors felt comfortable doing.
Rehearsals are essential to her work, she said, “because there is nothing worse than deciding at the moment what your limits are”.
Robinson had never worked with an intimacy coordinator before and feared it would interfere with her autonomy as a director. After working with Talbot, however, she was converted.
“The more I learned about the role, the more I became absolutely convinced that this is the way to go. I think it is absolutely essential that we hug this person on the set, not consider him a threat, but consider him an extremely useful intermediary for make the set a very safe place, “said Robinson.
In general terms, says Van Dusen, the process of making love scenes started with a discussion between him, the director of each episode, and Talbot, where they discussed their expectations and vision for the scene, particularly the emotional beats.
But it was up to Talbot and the actors to figure out how to do that.
“It would just be her and the two actors in a room together, working out the choreography and working out the details, and then they would present what they were thinking to me and the director,” said Van Dusen. “It was a conversation and it was collaborative. It was a wonderful process to work with the intimacy coordinator, and it was an evolution. All those scenes, I think, were an evolution.”
While Daphne and Simon are at the height of their newlyweds’ happiness during the editing of “Wildest Dreams”, many of the scenes were filmed at the beginning of production – and the first scene of this sequence took place on the first day of production at one of the institutions more serious: the Reform Club library, a private gentlemen’s club with members that include prime ministers, authors, academics, politicians and other great thinkers.
To put it in context: Housed in the library where Dynevor and Page were pressed against the shelves, is one of Shakespeare’s first folios.
“It was a lot of fun that we were filming there. It looked like the conventions of that place, which until recently was a men-only club, were exploding,” Robinson said.
The other scenes were filmed at Castle Howard, an imposing historic house in York with original furniture and artwork from the time that required extra supervision and presented extra problems for Page.
“Most of the time we were working on beds the size of Regency, and although that may not seem like a problem, Rege is quite tall,” said Talbot. “We would have to be very careful about how we position it so that it doesn’t hang on the end of the bed. And also a lot of the beds were quite narrow, so if we ever had a lot of scenes where people were rolling off each other, which we did, we had to position them very carefully, otherwise it would be very easy to roll straight to the floor. We were sometimes working with original four-poster beds that we had to be very careful with. There were often a lot of very expensive original items that surrounded us Castle Howard’s curators had to be in the room wherever we were filming, so I’m sure they had a lot of fun working on it Bridgerton too.”
This adds up to the totally incorrect concept of tearing the bodice, which, Talbot explained, does not actually happen, since it takes a long time to get in and out of the regency era costumes. “Anyone who has ever worn a corset knows that it doesn’t happen often,” she said, and it was something that she and the actors had to take into account when choreographing the scenes. (Robinson’s biggest challenge was what to do with the men’s boots, which were heavy and didn’t allow you to take your pants off easily.)
The biggest challenge, however, was the rain.
“You are working with actors who are wet; you have to be very careful with the wigs; you have to be very careful with the clothes,” said Talbot, which meant the scene where Daphne and Simon ran in the rain and continued to resuming their conjugal activities in the gazebo was particularly difficult. In addition, “We work a lot against hard surfaces, so we have to be able to protect the actors because it is essentially a stone floor. In addition, the scenes happen in the middle of the night and even though it is August, it is still the UK, for it’s absolutely freezing. How do we keep these actors warm during the shots and between takes? Part of that is having a fantastic costume team ready with robes and hot water bags and waiting to wrap them in the middle. modest clothes are held even if the actors are wet, because they are often held with tape or glue, and making sure it is still in place even with some very energetic scenes. “
Talbot and Robinson revealed, however, that the most difficult sex scene to film was not between Daphne and Simon, but the introduction of Bridgerton’s older brother Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) and his lover opera singer Siena (Sabrina Bartlett ) on the pilot, which Robinson also directed.
“There was an experience when we were shooting a sex scene with Johnny and his torn pants, the one against the tree,” said Robinson.
While the montage “Wildest Dreams” generated a lot of memes, a scene later in the season involving Daphne and Simon inspired a lot of online criticism about her portrait of marital rape, particularly of men.
Talbot said that while intimacy coordinators have no more say in the narrative of a series than a stunt coordinator in terms of the type of violence portrayed in a program, his job is all about the concept of consent.
“My role comes down to making sure that the actors are consenting to the actions that we are portraying, and that we are ensuring that they feel comfortable, and that there is no pressure from outside sources to show more than they feel comfortable or having freedom with your personal body and make sure there is a distinction between personal and professional, “she said. “It can be easily blurred in this industry. There is confusion around [the idea] that just because an actor represents something else, his body is not theirs – almost a puppet in a way that because they signed up for this role and that means they will do whatever they are asked to do. We are starting to have more conversations about how actors have more control over their bodies and what happens to them. “
The UK law against marital rape was not passed until 1991, and “there is much more education around [marital rape] than before, and particularly when Julia Quinn was writing this 20 years ago, “said Talbot.” I think what’s really good about this is that it starts conversations and people are talking around [consent]. I think this is very, very important. “