Bridgerton’s Luke Thompson, Yerin Ha Say Their ‘Not Thirst Trap Puppets’

[This story contains major spoilers from Bridgerton season four, Part 2.]

Benedict (Luke Thompson) and Sophie (Yerin Ha) may have finally found their happily ever after in Bridgerton season four, but it wasn’t without plenty of hurdles and setbacks that come with any fairytale story.

In Part 2 alone, while also trying to figure out how to make their relationship work within society — as Sophie is a maid and Benedict is a nobleman — Sophie is also dealing with Araminta’s (Katie Leung) vendetta against her, trying to throw her in prison forever, and Benedict is contemplating leaving his family and society so he can be with his one true love.

But thanks to Lady Violet Bridgerton’s (Ruth Gemmell) masterful plan, Benedict and Sophie make it down the aisle legally (if you caught that post-credits scene) by the end, along with a few highly anticipated spicy scenes along the way.

Thompson tells The Hollywood Reporter that it was important for them to “deliver something real” for Benedict and Sophie’s intimate scenes, “because we’re not thirst trap puppets.” Below, Thompson and Ha break down Part 2, including the chaos with Araminta (Katie Leung), filming those spicy scenes and their thoughts on the new Lady Whistledown mystery.

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This season centers on a love story between two people who wouldn’t be accepted by society’s views. What did you love most about bringing this type of love story to the show in a Cinderella-esque way? 

LUKE THOMPSON I love how the tensions of what can and can’t happen, both because of internal and external blocks, really undoes Benedict. From my point of view, it was really nice to watch a character like that get completely torn to pieces a little bit. I think that’s fun. It’s a nice thing to experience from an actor’s point of view.

YERIN HA And how much your character can change you internally, and make you really face your internal obstacles and actually have to deal with them. That was really fun to play.

Benedict was really going through it in Part 2, between trying to decide if he’s going to leave his family and move to the countryside with Sophie or figure out another way. What was your reaction when you first read that Benedict was willing to lose his family for love? Did you agree? 

THOMPSON It’s not really about agreeing with it or not. Symbolically, you always have to hold onto your family a little less tightly if you’re going to begin a family with someone else. That’s what’s quite poignant about that relationship, that meeting someone is your little doorway out of the family unit. And it’s particularly poignant with a family united by grief, by losing the dad. Everyone’s held onto each other a little bit more closely, and Benedict particularly. Everyone’s reacted to that differently, but Benedict’s response seems to have been to become some sort of glue to the family and keeping them very close. That’s the journey, isn’t it? You have to learn to let go a little bit if you’re going to change and start a story with someone else.

It was also really intense when Araminta had Sophie arrested and thrown in a jail cell, and almost put on trial. What was it like filming those more intense scenes in Part 2?

HA We’ve never seen a Bridgeton jail before. I was like, “How dark are we going?” I really did have to lean on the directors, and when you are working with a great script and a great cast member like Katie, who really does make you feel immense fear, I think you’re just able to play on the day,. It’s fun to play those scenes and explore that part of Sophie, and to go deep into that narrative that we’ve never really seen Bridgeton tackle before.

There are also more intimate scenes in Part 2, including the bathtub scene from the book. How did you work with the intimacy coordinator to bring those scenes to life? 

HA A lot of choreography. There were so many logistical things we had to contend with and problem-solve, from slippery, oily water to a long bathtub for a 5-foot-2 girl to twisting and turning away (laughs). It was genuinely like choreography. And actually, when you have those logistical things that you have to overcome, it’s kind of more fun.

THOMPSON Seven hours in a bathtub … it’s not for the faint-hearted (laughs).

HA [You become] a prune.

THOMPSON With those scenes, the thing to really hold at bay, for me anyway, is that sort of pressure of, Oh, it’s this kind of scene and we need to deliver this kind of thing so that people need to be excited or whatever. I think that’s not really your job. Your job is to just live the scene. Lizzy [Talbot], the intimacy coordinator, enables you to do that. She puts you straight in the scene rather than standing there thinking, Are people going to enjoy this? You can’t really control that, so you have to keep that side of things at bay because we’re not thirst trap puppets. We try and deliver something real, the story of it.

In the end, Sophie and Benedict thankfully end up together, but even if Araminta didn’t agree to Violet’s plan, do you think the Queen would have potentially let Benedict marry a maid? 

THOMPSON I like the narrative beat that there is a little fudge on the truth because it’s nice in the same way that Benedict, through being with Sophie, has found his weight, his seriousness and being in touch with reality. I think it’s nice that Sophie retains this little secret, this little bit of fantasy with that fudge on the truth at the end. The symmetry of that. But it wouldn’t be a good ending, wouldn’t it?

HA I like to think for the happy ending sake that she would still say yes.

Also, there’s a new mystery Lady Whistledown. Who do each of you think it is? 

HA No clue. It really could be anyone.

THOMPSON It could be anyone. All bets are off. I don’t have any inkling at all. I think they’ve written it specifically for that, because we only get a little taste of this new voice until we get further on into the next season.

Though season five won’t be focused on Benedict and Sophie, what do you hope for your characters next season, post-wedding? 

THOMPSON I don’t know. We’ll see. That’s beyond my pay grade. It’d be nice to see them have kids, and just be a part of the family as well. They’re actually both characters who have nice hotlines to all of the characters in the show, so I hope they still communicate with the siblings.

HA Or feel like they can lean on either one of us.

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All episodes of Bridgerton season four are currently streaming on Netflix. Check out all of The Hollywood Reporter‘s season four coverage here.