Dearest gentle readers, that most important time on the 2026 TV schedule has finally arrived for those with a Netflix subscription, meaning that Bridgerton Season 4, Part I is upon us! We can all now binge the first four episodes to our heart’s delight, and watch commitment-shy Benedict figure out his forever-after in the Cinderella-like story that puts him together with maid Sophie Baek. As to be expected, the new leading Bridgerton duo will have some spicy scenes, but stars Luke Thompson and Yerin Ha just revealed why one on a staircase was anything but. Fair warning: There are SPOILERS for Season 4, Episode 4 ahead!
Why Did Bridgerton’s Stars Say Their Sexy Staircase Scene Wasn’t That Sexy To Film?
If there’s anything that Bridgerton is known for, it’s having some of the hottest sex scenes on television, along with all the longing, pining, and lovey-dovey dialogue to be expected from a Regency-set romance. While new star Yerin Ha (who plays Sophie) has already admitted that filming sexytimes is pretty much always an “awkward” affair, when she and Luke Thompson recently spoke with E! News about their season, they opened up about how filming one of their pivotal sex scenes wasn’t that sexy behind the scenes.
When asked how they prepared to film Sophie and Benedict’s adult funtimes, and made sure that they came across well for the fans, Thompson replied with a laugh:
What we actually did is we both got ill for different scenes.
Oh, no. That’s one way to make a situation that’s already at least mildly stressful (realistically simulating sex acts in front of a group of people for millions to watch later) much more difficult, right? Talk about bad timing. And, apparently, this happened not just for their staircase scene but at least one other hot ‘n’ bothered moment. Ha then picked up the thread, and added:
[That] tells us we were very mentally a little bit weak and a little bit nervous. My immune system was down. In all seriousness, I do think that with those scenes, it is just an extension of an emotion, and it's there because it has to be, not because we're just doing a steamy scene for steamy scenes sake.
Obviously, there’s no way to know if Ha and Thompson got sick before some of their saucy sessions because they were nervous, but if that is the case, well, it certainly doesn’t show in the finished product. Here come some of those SPOILERS I mentioned above, so get ready!
After meeting and clearly developing a quick attraction to one another at the Bridgerton’s masquerade ball, Sophie (who snuck in and never revealed her identity) and Benedict have a chance meeting that leads to them having to hole up in his cottage in the country. There, they get to know each other much better and deepen their connection, but she doesn’t reveal anything about herself other than her status as a maid who now needs a new job, which he finds for her in his family’s household.
The two share lots of longing glances and strained conversations where they are clear on the limitations society has placed on their potential for acting on their feelings for one another (or even truly being friends). But, when they accidentally meet on the stairwell in the servant’s quarters one night when the house is basically empty, their desires take over and they get it on by having some up-against-the-wall staircase fun. END SPOILERS!
By the time things come to a boiling point for Benedict and Sophie, we can certainly see how and why their staircase sexytimes happen, and Thompson noted that there’s a “poetic” nature to the scenes, especially when thinking about the status of each character and what a romance would mean:
Bridgerton is very good at making the scenes feel actually poetic and, you know, sort of like there's a brilliant metaphor there about meeting at the center of the staircase, and then you know, he's going down, and she's going up. And I don't know, I just think to be able to engage with that makes it seem like it's sort of like a scene like any other scene. They feel meaningful, put it that way. They don't feel sort of tokenistic, which then makes it much more fun to abandon yourself to them a bit.
I do think most fans would agree that the series does a great job of making the sex scenes mean something in relation to the larger story, and what we’ve seen so far of Season 4 is no different. Now, I just can’t wait to see what else they have in store for us, and feel confident that if anyone was ill while filming, we won’t be able to tell even a little bit.
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