'Bridgerton' Star Jonathan Bailey Credits the Brilliance of The Regency-Era Romance for Its Carefully Crafted Complexity
Jonathan Bailey thinks the careful and complex treatment of the romance in Bridgerton is what makes the show specail and exciting.
Jonathan Bailey has stolen the hearts of the world for two seasons in the hit Netflix series Bridgerton. In season two, himself and co-star Simone Ashley led us through an enemies-to-lovers storyline that we could not take our eyes off of.
However, this show did not present us with the usual delicate tropeified treatment that such love stories tend to recieve. It gave us a beautifully intricate narrative about familial structure, communication, and responsibility. This nunace is what led the Viscount to fully recognize the power of this show.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, the actor shared:
"[I loved] the romance genre being given this platform - it's always been seen as quite a lightweight literature...Of course, it's fluffy because it's accessible and it's hopefully something that you can bathe in. But at the same time, it can really tap into very human, very private and very high-stakes human experiences.
"There's a lot of pressure on romance, I think, because you have to be so truthful. But that's what you want, isn't it? You just want to find the truth in everything."
The show creates layers of feeling, emotion, and revelations. The drama and intrigue of the show comes from the careful cultivation of these layers. Bailey expressed:
"You want to pace the intimacy and how the layers are peeled away...I love the rehearsal period in the theater and being in the room for seven weeks and being able to really make mistakes.
"When you do something like 'Bridgerton,' that rehearsal period really happens in your own mind, on your own. It's quite isolating. And if there's ever a character you can pour your sense of isolation or pandemic anxiety into, it's Anthony."
We can't wait to see what next season brings for this nuanced character.
