Bridgerton season 2: Jonathan Bailey, Simone Ashley, Charithra Chandran on what to expect

New cast members add spice to the long-awaited second season of the popular Netflix drama Bridgerton. Here is what to expect.

Lord Anthony – the eldest of the Bridgerton brood – is extremely easy on the eye, but not so easy to like.

He’s a classic Mr Rochester – brooding and arrogant. That’s as a character.

Jonathan Bailey – the man who plays the head of the Bridgertons with the weight of the world on his very broad and muscley shoulders – is far more relaxed and charming as he chats over Zoom from the Netflix uber show’s mega press day.

Flanked by new cast members Simone Ashley and Charithra Chandran, the 33-year-old shares just how much he relished slipping into the Viscount’s tight-fitting breeches again.

Charithra Chandran, Jonathan Bailey and Simone Ashley at the Bridgerton Series 2 world premiere at London’s Tate Modern. Picture: Getty Images

“He’s obviously got a complicated past, and we go into that this season,” he says.

“It’s good to play a character and lean into his qualities that are quite unlikeable and challenging and hopefully humanise them.

“And that is well and truly helped by meeting Kate, who well and truly challenges him every step of the way.

“It’s important with a character like him, as an actor, to not judge him but to understand him, and I really hope that comes across.”

Bailey loved reuniting with his castmates on the set of the second series.

The cast and crew had formed tight bonds but had been isolated from each other thanks to the ongoing pandemic.

“It was just brilliant and it was much needed,” he shares.

“Series one came out in the middle of the pandemic – to have any perspective on that was kind of impossible. We are such an amazing family, including the crew, who most have returned as well. So it was just brilliant to get back together and to welcome a new family to the fold.”

Charithra Chandran as Edwina Sharma, Simone Ashley as Kate Sharma, Shelley Conn as Mary Sharma, Jonathan Bailey as Anthony Bridgerton in the new season. Picture: Liam Daniel/Netflix

That new family is the Sharmas – mother Mary (Shelley Conn) and sisters Kate (Ashley) and Edwina (Chandran) – who land in London from India and throw Anthony’s search for a debutante who meets his impossible standards into chaos.

This season focuses on the Viscount, who has decided to give up cavorting with actresses and opera singers and settle down.

He tells his younger brothers he will be drawing up a list of suitable debutantes and that his intended must be “tolerable, suitable, have good child-bearing hips and half a brain”.

It all gets a bit confusing though when Edwina ticks all of the boxes but her headstrong older sister Kate proves a challenge – in more ways than one.

Ashley and Chandran weren’t daunted by the thought of joining the already established and super-talented ensemble.

“I really found it more exciting (than daunting),” Ashley shares.

“There was a lot of messaging from the entire cast and crew, it was really sweet. Nice little pats on the back, you know, – ‘you’ve got this’ and ‘you’re one of us and part of the team’. I just felt very welcome.”

The tension between Kate and Anthony is palpable in the new season. Picture: Liam Daniel/Netflix

Chandran laughs when asked if there was an initiation ceremony into the Bridgerton universe.

“Yes, they set up a quiz and 10 tasks and if we didn’t get it all done and right, then we were out,” she jokes.

Bailey hints that the sex scenes will be turned up to 11 as the dashing Viscount starts looking for his match, but warns it will be a slow burn.

“It kind of goes from 1 to 100,” Ashley shares.

“They’re psychologically naked in front of each other,” Bailey adds.

“It’s so sexy though,” Chandran says.

Bailey has revealed that acting as the charming Anthony is not always as smooth as you’d imagine.

Simone Ashley as Kate Sharma, Adjoa Andoh as Lady Danbury, Shelley Conn as Mary Sharma, Charithra Chandran as Edwina Sharma Picture: Liam Daniel/Netflix

There was one mishap involving some tight clothing while filming a fencing scene with his on-screen brothers Benedict (Luke Thompson) and Colin (Luke Newton).

“We’re not going to complain about restrictive clothing when we’re sitting with the women in their corsets, but the fencing outfits were quite tight in various places,” he says.

“We were wearing plimsolls on quite a dewy morning on the grass and when I went in for my final lunge, my crotch ripped and it was all on camera.”

Chandran has had her own slips.

“The corsets are super tight and the décolletage is pushed up a lot, so I’ve had many an unintentional nip slip,” she says.

“Fortunately it did not make it to the final cut.”

When Bridgerton, based on the Regency romance novels by Julia Quinn, launched on Netflix over Christmas 2020, it soon became the streaming service’s biggest original series, viewed by 82 million households in the first four weeks. Season two looks set to again break records, filled with many witty, charming and downright breathtaking moments.

Will they, won’t they? Jonathan Bailey as Anthony Bridgerton goes head to head with Simone Ashley’s Kate Sharma. Picture: Liam Daniel/Netflix

Ashley loves the scene where Kate is applying coconut oil to her sister Edwina’s hand.

“It’s a bit of a pivot in their story,” she says.

“I think for Edwina it’s a spark. She’s like ‘right, I’ve got to take the reins of this plan and really go for it’. That’s when you start to see the evolution of Edwina.

“It’s also a scene that represents a lot of different cultures and intimate bond between two sisters.”

Chandran too loved the energy between the whole Sharma family.

“There’s such a beautiful, divine feminine energy to those scenes and they’re really intimate, kind of almost sensual in a way,” she says.

“There’s a such a special bond with these sisters and the relationship they have with their mother.”

Bailey – who cheekily wouldn’t confirm if he was more likeable than Anthony in real life, “of course you pull bits of yourself into your character … but who knows what bits” – loves that there is a redemption for his character.

“I don’t think this is a spoiler,” he says.

“It’s basically at the end and there is an alignment with all the unpicking of his past and trauma and anxiety around loss and fear of death when he sees Kate.

“And that to me felt thrilling – certainly in the filming because of the rain and the epic nature of that love coming together at that one moment.”

Bridgerton, Friday, Netflix

Originally published as Bridgerton season 2: Jonathan Bailey, Simone Ashley, Charithra Chandran on what to expect