BRIDGERTON’s Luke Thompson and Yerin Ha Cover TOWN & COUNTRY’s Digital Issue

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For its fourth season, the hit Netflix series BRIDGERTON gives the classic Cinderella story some much-needed sizzle, with Yerin Ha and Luke Thompson leading the romance. “Yerin Ha and Luke Thompson Step into a Bridgerton Fairy Tale,” a special TOWN & COUNTRY digital cover story by Emily Burack is on townandcountrymag.com now.

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Yerin Ha on meeting Luke Thompson for the first time: “He just immediately had his arms open and gave a long hug, and I [thought], ‘Oh, you’re a nice person. You have a heart of gold,’” Ha says. “I’m a big believer in energy, and I was like, ‘I think you match mine.’”

Thompson on his chemistry with Ha offscreen: “We did get on, and it is a weird kind of thing because it’s not a prerequisite,” he says. “Chemistry in life doesn’t necessarily translate into chemistry [on screen]. Actors are much more comfortable living in that make-believe world—I was probably much shyer meeting her in real life than doing the scenes.”

Ha on stepping into the character of Sophie, a fairytale role that once felt out of reach: “I didn’t think someone who looked like me could play a character like that, especially in such a Western, Hollywood, American production…I never thought that that was going to be a thing that I would do, especially in Bridgerton, a Regency drama.”

Thompson on his character Benedict’s relationship with Sophie and how their romance unfolds naturally: “I had an intuition that we were just going to discover it as we went along,” Thompson says of their characters’ courtship, “that we weren’t going to try and force anything and that we weren’t going to really work hard at somehow making chemistry happen. We just were like, ‘Okay, let’s go on this adventure together.’”

Ha on Bridgerton’s candid portrayal of fairytale romance this season: “It’s not all glitz and glamour. It’s not as easy as people make it out to be. We dive a little bit deeper, with more of the realness of what it is to actually fall in love with someone at first sight.”

Thompson on what really drives Benedict, and how meeting Sophie changes everything: “He loves the romance and the fairytale nature of things, but he’s not so good with reality and what that actually requires—maybe negotiating a real relationship with someone. He’s a bit stuck in fairy land.” Meeting someone like Sophie, firmly rooted in the struggles of the real world, shakes Benedict’s perception of himself. “Her problem is that maybe she doesn’t dare to dream so much, so they complete each other in that way,” Thompson says. “There’s something very modern about that.”

Thompson on the “Shakespearean” twist at the heart of Benedict’s love story: “It’s actually quite Shakespearean,” says Thompson. “You have to take it in a more metaphorical sense, which is what’s interesting. Why doesn’t he recognize her? It says something about this character that he can’t quite connect fantasy and reality—and maybe, on a subconscious level, Benedict is scared of putting those sides of his life together and actually committing to a relationship.”

Ha on establishing trust early on while filming her first scene with Thompson: “The kite scene was a really good parallel of me letting my walls down and being able to trust this person, actor to actor. It was really sweet. That was the day where I thought, ‘I’m going to be okay for 10 months, or however long this shoot is. We will have each other’s backs.’” That day, Ha says, “encapsulated a lot of feelings for me—and trust.”

Thompson on Ha’s subtle yet powerful performance in Bridgerton: “She doesn’t overplay anything. She’s so subtle, Yerin, as an actor, and that’s really rare and really cool and requires a lot of confidence. She’s confident to just keep it true. That’s amazing to work with, because it means that you’ve got a lot of honesty coming your way, which means it’s very difficult to not be honest back,” he says.

[Photo Credit: Jenny Anderson for Town & Country Magazine]

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