Yerin Ha, the new lead actress of “Bridgerton” season 4, has almost caught on fire — twice.
I’m sitting behind a monitor in a muddy tent in Osterley Park, a massive greenscape just outside London. True to English form, it’s gloomy and numbingly cold; mud puddles pool on the ground as extras in sorbet-hued dresses raise their multi-layered skirts to avoid the inevitable splatters. A cup of coconut-milk hot chocolate warms my hands — production tells me it’s the cast and crew’s favourite.
I watch as the season’s leads, Yerin Ha and Luke Thompson, film a tender scene by candlelight in the property’s tiny Garden House. Their crackling chemistry is delicious and extends into lively chatter between takes. After a few instances of nearly tripping over the open candle flames, Ha bursts out into song — “This girl is on fire!” — much to Thompson’s amusement.
Thankfully, though, the only “slow burn” you’ll see this season — part one drops Jan. 29 on Netflix — is in their fiery onscreen romance. The latest chapter of the beloved Regency-era romance series follows Benedict Bridgerton (played by Thompson), the rakish second-eldest brother, as he navigates a Cinderella-style forbidden romance with Sophie Baek (played by Ha), a maid he meets in a chance encounter.
Last February, the Star was invited for a behind-the-scenes tour of the “Bridgerton” set as this season was being filmed. Over a few jam-packed days, I explored the winding, cobbled streets of the backlot, spent time in the bustling makeup trailers and colourful costume departments (yes, they’re just as spectacular as you’d imagine) and explored the never-before-seen “downstairs” of the Bridgerton household.
By the time I emerged from this pastel universe, even the gloomy British chill felt romantic.
Up until recently, my time on set felt like a hazy dream: I wasn’t allowed to use my personal cellphone while I was there (Netflix provided me with one to take photos and videos, which I had to hand back until just over a week ago) and all details from set were under strict embargo.
The rules felt a tad extreme, but when I posted a few photos from the public parts of the trip to my Instagram stories, I immediately understood why. Within minutes, I was inundated with new “Bridgerton” fan account followers, many of them messaging me for intel and reposting my personal photos to their feeds for other fans to analyze. All of this for a couple of innocent selfies from the Ton!
I shouldn’t have been surprised: “Bridgerton” has built a reputation for carefully placing Easter eggs for eager fans to dissect, and as I learned behind the scenes, something as innocuous as the stone on a pendant or the glint of silver on a wig can be dripping with meaning.
With that in mind, here are the juiciest details I discovered on the “Bridgerton” set.
‘Bridgerton’ Season 4 is downright Shakespearean
While this chapter takes its plot cues from “Cinderella”, many of its visual references call back to the Renaissance era. The spectacular season-opening masquerade ball (featuring 172 custom costumes!) was actually designed with “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in mind. Production designer Alison Gartshore called it a “magical midnight woodland extravaganza,” and had the dance floor painted to resemble a midnight sky featuring Cassiopeia in the stars (the symbol of love, what else?).
Benedict’s ball costume is an ode to the bard himself: “Very much like ‘Shakespeare in Love,’” associate costume designer Dougie Hawkes told me, which feels fitting considering Benedict becomes entangled in his very own star-crossed romance.
Meanwhile, Lady Bridgerton (played by Ruth Gemmell) dressed for the masquerade as Titania, Queen of the Fairies. Assistant costume designer Georgie Sayer explained that this is an intentionally softer, more romantic look for the family’s matriarch — a hint as to what’s to come for her this season.
Don’t expect a glow-up for Benedict Bridgerton
Much fanfare was made over the “glow-ups” of the other Bridgerton brothers for their seasons, with Jonathan Bailey (People’s reigning Sexiest Man Alive) and Luke Newton both appearing more coiffed and dashingly styled for their leading men moments. When I asked hair and makeup designer Nic Collins if we can expect a similar treatment for Thompson, she cracked a wide smile and asked: “Does he need it?” (We giggled and agreed he doesn’t.)
That said, there are some subtle shifts in Benedict’s wardrobe this season. Costume designer John Glaser explained that the costume team took inspiration from the 1980s New Romantic style, mixing in sheer fabrics with more artistic patterns.
To ensure that Benedict’s new style felt seamless, the costume team also swapped out the rest of the men’s stark white dress shirts for soft pink and blue hues and frilled collars. “This season we’ve taken the men and we Gucci’d them up,” said Glaser. (Keep an eye out for one masquerade ball guest styled like Prince.)
The show welcomes its first East Asian lead
There’s much excitement among “Bridgerton” fans that the show has its first East Asian lead in Ha. But for the team, it was key that Sophie’s heritage not become her whole personality. “The Penwoods have been here; they’re an established London family,” Glaser said, adding that they’ve been in high society for “three or four generations.”
Still, there is one thoughtful touch that can be seen in practically every scene Sophie is in: “Her necklace is based on an Asian necklace that’s amethyst, which is the stone of Korea. That’s a little tiny Easter egg to her history that her mother gave her.”
The couple’s easy charm extends off-screen
When I chatted with Ha and Thompson between filming, I couldn’t help but notice the ways their demeanours echo their characters’. It was so cold on location that we could see our breath swirling in big clouds around us; I’d lost feeling in my toes. In response, Thompson flashed me his signature cheeky grin and conspiratorially shared that he’s wearing four heat packs under his costume to keep warm.
When I remarked on Ha’s luminous skin, she brushed off the compliment and said “it’s all makeup” with a modest laugh. I wasn’t convinced, but I did ask Collins how the makeup team achieves Sophie’s look. She told me they use a combination of Tatcha skin care, Armani base makeup and Bobbi Brown cream blush.
The Queen is a production team favourite
The over-the-top opulence surrounding the Queen (played by Golda Rosheuvel) is a delightful mainstay of this show. Every production member I encountered on set told me that every single element of her world is carefully crafted to be loaded with meaning — unsurprisingly, they also told me she’s their favourite character to work on.
Case in point: the Queen’s wig at the masquerade ball appears to be a cage-like structure, but as Collins explained, it’s so much more. “It’s got little bits of silver in it that represent the stars and the cosmos, because of George,” she said. (In the spinoff series “Queen Charlotte,” King George has a penchant for astronomy). “Inside there is the original crown that he gave to her, but we made it out of a hair crown, and then within that crown there’s diamonds.”
According to Collins, all of these elements are Easter eggs, designed to hint at the caged nature of the Queen’s heart. “Every wig has a story to tell.”
We’ve never seen a “Bridgerton” villain like this before
While “Bridgerton” has seen its fair share of social-climbing debutantes, it’s never had a true villain — until now. Sophie’s “evil” stepmother, Araminta Gun (played by Katie Leung), brings a new visual language to the show. “As far as women in ‘Bridgerton,’ she’s our first character to wear black,” Glaser said, explaining this was an intentional choice to highlight her sinister nature.
It’s not just her wardrobe choices that are intimidating. For the design of her home, “we went with the theme of terror within the perfection,” said Gartshore, adding that one particularly imposing woman served as visual inspiration for the character: Anna Wintour.
Our first glimpse of “downstairs”
For the first time, viewers are getting a glimpse into the bustling staff quarters downstairs at the Bridgerton household. “You’d need a small army to support an aristocratic family at the time,” said set designer Natalie Papageorgiadis as she took me on a tour through the expansive “downstairs” set complete with a kitchen, pantry, laundry room and dining room.
There were well-worn workstations piled high with real fresh fruit and freshly baked pastel-iced pastries. Gleaming shelves of copperware reflected the faint “sunlight” streaming in through the windows amid a very convincing backdrop of sun-dappled trees just outside. I knew I was on a sound stage in a massive Netflix warehouse, but still my brain had trouble reconciling it, and that’s because of the attention to detail in this fully functional set: everything from the herb crusher to the signature Bridgerton-blue crockery that lined the walls was sourced to be accurate to the Regency period.
As we left the Bridgerton kitchen, Papageorgiadis casually mentioned that 200 fresh eggs are boiled for every scene that’s filmed there. I can think of no better anecdote to summarize this experience.
In the world of “Bridgerton,” every detail tells a story and every glance carries meaning. And this season’s upstairs/downstairs romance is well worth the wait. No fires here — just sparks.
