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The World of ‘Bridgerton’ Video Series: The Women of ‘Bridgerton’

The World of ‘Bridgerton’ Video Series: Queen Charlotte’s Court

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(upbeat symphony music) - When it came to the wedding sequence, I was overwhelmed because we were filming in St. James's Church, which I've been to, many a time and it's stunning, right in the heart of London. They managed to be able to get all of us ready, all of us in costume and then for the very first time that we ran it, it was on camera. And you know, me, Charithra, Simone and Shelley were all waiting at the end and everyone was in there and they hadn't even seen Charithra in the dress. And then, yeah, and then we sort of, the service sort of played out as it would. And it was an amazing moment and one that I will never forget. - I, as an actor, just felt so grateful. I like, remember calling up Chris being like, thank you, thank you, thank you for giving me this. Thank you for giving me these scenes. Thank you for showing the growth in Edwina. - But when you read it, the wedding scene in particular, there wasn't as much dialogue. It was a lot of like stage directions of what was happening. The different looks. When Cate walks up the aisle. When Edwina walks up the aisle. All the bangles falling on the floor. It's hard to imagine how it's gonna be shot and what it's gonna look like. And then when you come on the day, it's really exciting to see the crew and you know, our amazing director, Tom Verica and Martins Imhangbe and cameramen all like have a discussion of how it's all gonna be shot. And I remember particularly me and Johnny were saying how vulnerable and scary it felt walking down that aisle it felt like a real wedding. With everyone watching you, you feel incredibly exposed. And you can prep as much as you want and come to the table with loads of different ideas but as soon as you're on set and you're together you kind of let it go and you're in the moment. (upbeat symphony music) - We'll have rehearsals. I'll work with the actors. Traditionally on a scene like this to really kind of talk through the beats and moments, because on the day they'll be you know 500 people circling asking questions and I really wanna make sure that we've tended to the beats and the moments of the script and the requirements of that to work with the actors, so that we've asked ourselves those questions. And then we can play on the day about the spontaneity of what always happens once you get on set and once you start filming 'cause there is a spontaneous nature that I like to preserve when we kind of get on there. 'Cause the actors will bring something. The environment brings its element. And once everybody gets the costumes on and everything it takes on a life of its own. (upbeat music) - When I get the scene or the scripts, you learn the fuck out of it. That's my technique. And I know some times there's an attitude that `people don't wanna be like too trapped in the long lines. And yeah, we'll get onto set. I love this bit. So we do just a line read, like literally we'll just stand around and we'll just say the words. It's not like so much about the performance, it's about just getting the lines out, we know the setup. Then, the director and in this case, it was the glorious Tom Verica, but he'll then tell us his idea but he's like so cool and open to like "but we'll see what makes it work with you guys as well if you guys have ideas." I sort of love being told what to do though. I sort of really love being given the direction, I love it. Then we'll try that, see if it works a couple of times and then we'll do a crew show and that's when all the crew come in and then we've got beautiful Drew and Pete and they're putting down marks on the floor when we're doing the block and obviously sound there to see where we're like walking about, see what their journey's gonna be. Make up there to make sure that we're not doing like gambles and like rollie pollies around the gravel, so we don't end up with like cuts and scrapes in our hairs you know to see what elements we're up against. And then we start filming. - I think people maybe think of actors 'cause they're called actors, 'cause there was acting and you think that you are doing lots of things all the time. And actually a lot of it is about actually sort of trying to not do stuff and trying to sort of let things happen rather than try and make things happen. So it's like being a living puppet and I think that could sound sort of like horrible in the sense that you be told what to do but actually if you relax into it, it's very nice. You know, you just sort of finish a take and have someone like adjusting your bow tie and someone else will start feeling with your hair and someone will tell you "by the way, that line, it's this word." And then someone will move you this way and it's quite nice. It's quite a nice feeling. It's like being a living puppet. (crowd chattering) - So if you saw the wedding scene on the page, it's an awful lot of stage direction. So what that tells you straight away is this is a story that's going to be told predominantly visually. And why is that gonna have happen? Because we all know what the stakes are by this point in the season's narrative arc. Will they, won't they? How much the rest of us have got riding on the success or failure of the marriage. You know, everybody knows the stakes at that point. So it's like a ballet. It's like a dance. And you have to know what your dance moves are where you fit into the routine and what the impact of a movement over here will have filtering down through to you here. - If I'm honest, you don't have to try to put yourself there mentally because all the work is done for you it really felt like a wedding. - It felt a bit like you could just give yourself over to the day and the situation that was. Which was, get dressed. I mean, that's what a wedding feels like. You know, you get into your finest. There's a sort of shared experience. But there was something about walking down the aisle with Charithra and seeing Johnny at the altar and just thinking, oh my goodness they're about to get married. And for the first few takes, I've just felt very shaky. That's what it would've been like for Mary to have been allowed back into the club, the tom. It would've been immense and I felt that. So actually, process wise as an actor, I had a lot for free. I was given a lot for free that day. - In the moment of the wedding, you just have this visual feast of a dance of emotion and tension and dramatic buildup and will they, won't they? And then deflation and then you get all the out workings of that that just ratchets it up a gear and takes us somewhere else again. (symphony music playing) (crowd chattering)

The Bridgerton cast shares their experiences filming the pivotal wedding scene in episode 6 of season two.