Jonathan Bailey discussed the sex scenes in "Bridgerton " season two with The Sunday Times.- Despite the scenes being shot from the female gaze, he said they're still "less exposing" for men.
Jonathan Bailey said he kept a close eye on his "Bridgerton" costar Simone Ashley to make sure she was comfortable filming their character's intimate scenes.
"For a man it is less exposing," the 33-year-old explained during an interview with The Sunday Times, published Sunday, adding, "I wanted to make sure Simone felt safe as a newcomer on set."
Ashley, previously known for her role as Olivia Hanan on
Their enemies-to-lovers romance, built using the framework laid out in Julia Quinn's 2000 novel "The Viscount Who Loved Me," sits at the forefront of the Regency drama's sophomore season, set to premiere on March 25.
The protagonists may be different this time around — Regé-Jean Page is notably absent as the Duke of Hastings and his on-screen counterpart Phoebe Dynevor takes a backseat as Daphne — but the show's most intimate moments will continue to be shot from the "female gaze," Bailey told The Sunday Times.
The style, which gives women agency and empowerment in their pleasure and sexuality, is an intrinsic aspect of "Bridgerton," Bailey previously said during an interview with Entertainment Weekly in early February.
"There are many ways people communicate by sex, and what sex means, and what your body means to someone else. It's important that there's an inversion of sexuality and how people are exploited in the storytelling of sex," he explained.
To ensure the actors' boundaries were well-communicated and understood on set, they worked closely with professional intimacy coordinators, Bailey told The Sunday Times.
Before shooting sex scenes, Bailey and Ashley signed a contract spelling out exactly what they were and were not willing to show on-screen — consenting to details from "which bit of skin" they would expose to "where" and "how" they would be touched.
"No one goes into a scene quaking, worrying about how it will go — if you are concerned you can talk to them," the actor told the publication, continuing, "It turns sex scenes into a choreographed dance."
Season one's intimacy coordinator, Lizzy Talbot, returned for the new episodes. She was joined by Joshua Okpala, who has previously worked on "The Weekend Away" (2022) and Anatomy of a Scandal" (2022).
Aside from checking in with Ashley about the show's much-talked-about sex scenes, Bailey reportedly made a larger effort to make the actress feel like a welcomed addition to the ensemble cast from the day she arrived.
On her first day on set, Ashley told Glamour UK she found a bouquet of flowers in her trailer, addressed to her from her costar. The 26-year-old actress said she made a point to leave Bailey's favorite snacks in his trailer as a way of reciprocating the gesture.
So began their gift-swapping habit.
"We had a very unspoken rhythm going on in that sense, leaving gifts in each other's trailers," she told the magazine.