Jonathan Bailey has defended the lack of sex scenes in season two of Bridgerton.
The actor plays Anthony Bridgerton in the hit Netflix show, and the second season follows his character’s romance with Kate Sharma (played by Simone Ashley).
While season one was filled with steamy scenes between Dalphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor) and The Duke of Hastings (Regé-Jean Page), viewers were left disappointed by the lack of sex in the latest season.
Jonathan, 33, told USA Today: “What you lose in sex scenes you gain in a deeper human understanding, which hopefully enriches the world so that the future intimacy scenes won’t be the heavy feature, and [you] won’t have to lean on them as much.”
“It’s right to surprise an audience and keep them on their toes a bit,” he explained.
“It would have been wrong for Kate and Anthony to have got physical any sooner than they did. And I think the payoff is really earned.”
Speaking at a Bridgerton press conference last month, the show’s creator Chris Van Dusen explained why there was “a lot less sex scenes” in the new season.
He said: “It was never about quantity for us. Our approach to intimacy on the show is the same as season one – we use these intimate scenes to tell a story.”
“We’ve never done a sex scene for the sake of doing a sex scene, and I don’t think we ever will. It all serves as a larger purpose.”
Chris continued: “It’s a different story this season, it’s different characters. Anthony and Kate are very different to Dalphne and Simon (Regé-Jean Page).”
“The chemistry between [Jonathon and Simone] is just off the charts… There’s so much sexiness in just the looks across the room, and the hands grazing, and the almost touching. You can really feel that build from episode to episode, from scene to scene.”
“You know that when we get there, the climax if you will, the payoff is going to be well worth it.”
