If the Top 10 list on Netflix is to be believed, the people are desperate for more Bridgerton. But actually delivering a second season of the soapy Shondra Rhimes-produced drama may be a bit harder because of, you know, that still-ongoing pandemic.
That’s according, at least, to the show’s star. Phoebe Dynevor, who played Daphne Bridgerton, thinks actually pulling off filming safely will be significantly harder, not to mention getting the same chemistry going while wearing masks. Dynevor spoke to Deadline about all things Bridgerton and detailed why she thinks filming Season 2 in the age of novel coronavirus could be more complicated than some might think. First and foremost, of course, is the sheer size of the show’s scale regarding cast and crew.
“I can’t imagine how it would be possible to film under these circumstances. There are so many extras and so many crew members, and it’s a very intimate show. It just baffles me how we would film it under Covid rules unless there was a vaccine beforehand,” the actress explains. Producers may have more confidence, with Production Weekly suggesting Season 2 could shoot in the UK from March.
Another significant obstacle is the locations Bridgerton shot in, which included a number of lavish British mansions appropriate for the period piece. One immediately thinks of the poor soul whose job it might be to sanitize all those ornate carvings and reliefs after a long day of filming. And then there’s the idea of recreating that kind of intimacy we saw in Season 1. The interview revealed that Dynevor and co-star Regé-Jean Page had six weeks of intimacy training to get those romantic moments looking right and feeling appropriate. She noted working on another show in the past year while wearing masks for safety often made things significantly tougher.
Dynevor says this was vital to the final performance and their chemistry could not have been achieved behind the shield of a mask, which is an experience she has had while filming TV Land’s Younger in New York last year.
“When I was filming, it was masks on in rehearsals. So you don’t take them off until you say action. Or at least we didn’t. It was a really strange experience. I didn’t see my character’s new boyfriend’s face until we were filming a scene together, which was really bizzare,” she says of the shoot.
It’s unlikely anyone is interested in waiting out the pandemic, especially given the hiccups in vaccine rollout we’ve seen in these last few weeks. Time is money, even if that means significantly more money spent on health and safety protocols. There’s a lot of small details in the Deadline piece about where the show’s second season might be headed, and what role her character plays in the drama given how her storyline wrapped up in the first season. But before we get to see what may lay ahead, it has to be filmed. Which right now sounds a lot more daunting than it was for Season 1.
[via Deadline]