Not even Lady Whistledown could’ve predicted the ways in whichBridgertonwould woo the world.
But to paraphrase another mega-successful franchise, with great success comes great responsibility.
There’s a pressure to live up to season 1’s lightning-in-a-bottle pop culture moment.
The ‘Bridgerton’ cast at EW’s March 2022 cover shoot.Zoe McConnell for EW
“Our profile going into the second season was really high,” he says.
And what of the actors?
Suddenly, they were thrust into a white-hot spotlight, becoming the object of the internet’s affections.
Charithra Chandran and Simone Ashley on ‘Bridgerton’.Liam Daniel/Netflix
I was stuttering over it for the first few takes.
I was with both my [on-screen] brothers and they both reassured me.
They’d already done a few days, and it was my first day back."
Zoe McConnell for EW
“But there was definitely a moment of I have to keep reminding myself, ‘This is my job.
We’ve done it before, and it’s all going to be fine.
I can trust it.’
To be part of that is very overwhelming.”
“Everything shifted and you get a sense of people slightly assuming they know you,” he says.
Instead of fixating on it and being tripped up by it, Bailey channeled that into his character.
That felt quite right that I was feeling similar."
That sense of fear wasn’t exclusive to the returning cast either.
“These two young women are immigrants.
They’re new people to this country.
I focused on being an outsider whenever you go somewhere new and how that makes you feel.”
“They are incredible women,” she says.
Me and Charithra harnessed that."
Others reveled more in the positives of the show’s immense popularity.
Then, it snowballed, and I was like, ‘Oh I think this is a phenomenon.
This is a major, major thing."
“I don’t know what could happen to top it all in season 2,” she muses.
“I could hostSNL; I’m free!”
“If Barlow and Bear aren’t too busy with their Grammy nomination.”
When season 2 premieres March 25, it will debut to an audience waiting for more with breathless anticipation.
A version of this story appears in the March issue ofEntertainment Weekly, on newsstands Feb. 18.
