When confirmation came that Benedict Bridgerton will be the focus of Bridgerton season four, I said it wouldn’t be long before we learned who has been cast as his love interest, Sophie Beckett. Now, less than a month later, we know: Australian-Korean actress Yerin Ha has been cast as Sophie. As far as she’s known to North American audiences, it’s probably through Halo, the video game TV adaptation that lasted two seasons on Paramount+. But Aussies might know her from the miniseries Bad Behaviour, and in a sign of things to come, besides Bridgerton, she’s also been cast in Dune: Prophecy, the HBO-bound spin-off from Denis Villeneuve’s films, which is due out later this year.
Since she’s Australian, I hope they let Ha speak in her natural accent (you can hear it here). As an illegitimate child relegated to servant life, Sophie is an outsider to the world of the Bridgertons, letting her use her Aussie accent would be an excellent way of marking that difference. But you never know with British period dramas, even the more frivolous ones, the impulse for everyone to speak in Received Pronunciation is strong. Still, I’m rooting for the Aussie to come through!
Also, this puts a nail in the coffin of Benedict’s sexual exploration leading anywhere interesting. That’s not a problem for Yerin Ha to deal with it, and let’s all agree to not make it her problem. It more speaks to the writers not having a plan for how to occupy Benedict’s time before it was his turn in the spotlight. Which is sort of amazing because it was 1) right there in the books, and 2) also right there in season one—just focus on his art. He’s supposed to turn into a great painter anyway, letting us see Benedict work and improve his art over three seasons would not have been a waste of time, but it was definitely treated as such. Anyway, Benedict is not the Bridgerton who will carry the queer banner forward, that falls to Francesca and Michaela Stirling.
Speaking of season four, it’s supposed to start production next month. Jonathan Bailey will be returning as the Viscount, but he says he only has “a couple of weeks etched out” in his schedule, which means the Viscount will not be making a significant contribution to the story, given that production is expected to run eight months. Two weeks out of eight months is a glorified cameo. Still, Bailey is the Bridgerton alum doing the best, career-wise, right now. He’s managed to balance the productions of Bridgerton, Wicked, and Fellow Travelers over the last couple years. Fellow Travelers was especially fruitful for him, yielding a Critics Choice Award and an Emmy nomination.
This has me thinking of an article in Life & Style from earlier this summer about Regé-Jean Page, though. In that article, “sources” mused that Page is “rebuilding” his career after his first wave of post-Bridgerton roles didn’t pan out. Are the “sources” just people with a thimbleful of common sense looking at Page’s IMDb page? Because that is pretty obvious without needing to claim “sources” close to Page.
There’s no question after the initial success of Bridgerton in 2020, Page did the best coming out of the show, immediately signing onto blockbuster projects The Gray Man and Dungeons & Dragons. Except one, The Gray Man, was for Netflix and also was bad, which means it totally failed to make a cultural mark. And the other, Dungeons & Dragons, just didn’t hit with audiences despite actually being good. That’s how it works sometimes. So yeah, Page is “rebuilding”, in that he’s got to find a second wave of momentum. But it’s not like he’s back at square one. His next project is Black Bag, a thriller from Steven Soderbergh that co-stars f-cking Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender. That’s a plum gig. He also has that Butch & Sundance series for Prime Video which Glen Powell initially set up, but it’s no longer clear if Powell will co-star, given everything else he’s signed onto. I will not be shocked if that project falls apart.
In more recent times, Jonathan Bailey has done the best out of Bridgerton, running from set to set to film multiple projects. Does that mean Page should duck back into Regency London for a cameo? Not necessarily, especially since there’s nothing for him to do, story-wise. (Bailey can always pop in as Anthony chastising his younger siblings.) It more reminds me of the arc of Dan Stevens’ career after he left Downton Abbey in 2012. It’s taken a decade for audiences to realize he’s great, actually, and embrace all the weird sh-t he gets up to. Basically, Page just needs to keep at it, and eventually the Next Big Thing WILL hit.
Ditto all of this for Simone Ashley, and let’s not pretend for a second there isn’t a pretty glaring difference between Page, Ashley, and Bailey. And yes, Bailey is gay, but it hasn’t stopped him from booking straight romantic roles, nor booking blockbuster roles, as he’s co-starring with Scarlett Johansson in next summer’s Jurassic World 4 (he’s also going to star as Richard II in a new revival of Shakespeare’s Richard II in the West End next year). Simone Ashley’s next major role is in Brad Pitt’s F1. For her sake, and Damson Idris’s, I hope that movie does well. But only for their sakes.
Also attached - Jonathan Bailey promoting Fellow Travelers with Matt Bomer in New York on the weekend.
