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June 3, 2021 13 mins

What ever happened to the necklace Daphne left on the stone wall? And a last minute change to the series revealed. Following last week’s episode, Executive Producers Shonda Rhimes and Betsy Beers are back again to answer fan questions. 

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
We have to take fan questions because you and I
have done what we always do, which is just talk
to each other. Wait, and we'll yeah, exactly, And we're
going to keep doing this when we stopped the podcast,
by the way, yeah, we'll just keep talking to keep talk.
They were smart to just keep recording it, but you
probably couldn't use it because it would be filmed sports.
We're not supposed to say hi, everyone, I'm Shanda Rhys
and I'm Betsy Beers. We're taking you inside Shanda Land

(00:21):
on this episode of Bridgerton the Official Podcast. We're also
answering your questions about the show and why we picked
the stories we tell. So we got fan questions. Did
you know that Betan questions? Fan questions, fans of questions,
Fans they should have questions. I have questions, so I
would think fans would have questions. I have a lot
of questions, but I do too, actually, but I think
we ask each other questions all day long. I think

(00:43):
for a fan to get a chance to ask a
question probably would be delightful for us, probably matter more
than our questions. Maybe probably so because maybe some of
our questions wouldn't be as relevant. I don't think. But
and also we know a lot of the answers I hope,
so gosh, if you don't, this is kind of embarrassing.
Let's do fan questions. Let's do fan questions. I'm gonna
be good question and then ask Betsy, and Betsy'll pick

(01:05):
a question and we'll just go back and forth and
back and forth. Right, Okay, the only question I'm not
going to answer is, you know, why did we kill me? Dreaming?
Just how it got to happen? But that's being asked
to me that gonna happen. It's not a Bridgiston question.
What was the decision behind ending season one? Debated? It? Did? That? One?
Came from Jacob Rivera Sanchez? What was the reason it

(01:25):
seems so quick? Maybe because people, you know, they're expecting
lots and lots of episodes from us. I think a
lot of this has to do with expectation and what
they're used to sing from us in the past twenty
four episodes. And also we wrapped it up like what
people aren't used to I think, and I totally understand
what you're saying, Jacob Rivera A Sanchez. We've heard a
lot about the idea that these are closed ended stories,

(01:47):
and although we will have the Bridgerton's as characters that continue,
it's very important to us and to Shanda and to
Julia Quinn first and foremost, and to everybody who worked
on the show that our characters have a happy ending.
I wasn't used to it. I mean, I gotta ti. Yeah.
I got to episode eight and I was like, what
the heck when I first actually read it, because I'm
used to ongoing stories too. But I think the important

(02:07):
thing was these two characters, Simon and Daphne, had resolved
their primary conflict. They'd each grown to a place where
they could understand what love really is, and that is
understanding the needs of the person you love as much
as the things that you care about, which we really
felt like they achieved pretty healthily in episode eight. Is

(02:29):
there anything that was a last minute change or new
idea that had a lasting impact on the series. Let's
talk about that. Because Chaotic Guitar aka Anthony's Babe asked
what was the reason behind exposing Lady whistled Down in
season one? Was it because Nicola was so awesome? And
I feel like the juiciest thing we can tell you
is that in the original planning, we weren't exposing Lady

(02:50):
whistled Down at the end of season one. We had
a whole other scene that was ending season one that
was not as interesting really when we came down to it,
when we were starting at the cut and when we
got to the final edit, even in a pandemic we
actually shot this during pandemic period. I was like, the
face we have to see has to be And you know,
if you're watching this, if you're listening to this podcast,

(03:11):
it's not a spoiler, because why are you listening, is penelopies.
You're doing this in the wrong order. Yeah, go with
the other order, rewind, stop listening. But the face you
should see should be the face of the actual Lady
whistle Down. And you know in the book they wait
to reveal it until I know, long after. I think
if you are a person who's brought all the books,

(03:33):
you know that it doesn't it's not until the call
in season that it's revealed. And the reality of it
is is for a show to reveal it at the
end of the first season then provided us with so
much possibility of story moving forward because now we know
something that nobody else knows. Whereas you know, in the books,
when we knew it, they knew it, or at least

(03:54):
the bridger Tins knew it. So it felt really important
that we would know it at the exact right time
time that we could then enjoy the secret too. Otherwise
it sort of took away an opportunity to tell some
really interesting story. The other thing about this series of
books that they do have a massive group of fans. Oh,

(04:16):
the fans are serious. The fans are serious and wonderful,
and we send so many thanks out to the fans
because that's part of the reason we're doing this podcast today.
But we've given that fact. It is really important that
you do try to represent in some forms so much
of what the fans expect and love at the same
time giving them something additive and from your point of view,

(04:41):
from a different storyteller's point of view as well. I
also just think, you know, the respect for the romance
genre is sort of missing in Hollywood. I think, you know,
one of the things that I thought was interesting was
we have these fans. They very much like they're living
in the romance genre. That's their thing. They've never really
had an opportunity to have this kind of story told

(05:02):
on television. So you really want to respect what that
romance genre is because that's what's drawn them all in,
and they are very serious and hardcore about it. At
the same time, you want to draw on a whole
other audience of people, probably a lot of people who
think that romance is one thing and have their own
preconceived notions to you want to draw them in as well.
So it allows you to sort of both stick to

(05:22):
what's magical about Julia's books but expand upon it to
make the world feel even more three dimensional for television.
I think that that's a really good point. I think
the fact that the ideal situation is at the end
of watching the series, you go out and read the
books if you haven't read the books, and from what
I can tell from the bestseller list, that seems to
be working. Okay, that's by the way. The other thing

(05:44):
that I think is kind of awesome is we have
managed to create a series that is making people who
weren't reading read. That's the best thing ever, Like it's
given them a hunger to read some books, and television
very rarely goes that direction. Usually it goes the other direction,
to read the books. And then you're desperately waiting for thee.
I think it's sort of gone back and forth both ways. Absolutely,
I think that's that's actually a really really good point.

(06:06):
Hi Betsy, my name is not Easy. I'm from Brazio,
and here is my question. Many men love the series
game romance timid content stop being ruled out as chick lit.
I'm very happy to see that all of a sudden,
kind of formally now romance novels have a place which
is not relegated to silly lady fiction, which it's that

(06:31):
sort of chick lit girl thing that people like to
do where they take things that are popular, but because
women like them, they sort of stick them in a
downgraded category. But if men like them and they're stupid,
you know what I mean, or they're you know, basic,
or in any way something different than what like women
would think. Like if women were like I don't want
to do that, it's still wanted and valued and special,

(06:54):
which is fascinating to me. But if women think it's
amazing and men don't get it, it becomes like this
thing that stuck in a corner exactly. And what we did,
I think, is make it something that everybody got to
I don't care if you're a man or a woman.
I have so many men talking to me about Bridgerton.
Were you surprised by that? It's amazing how many men were, like,
had a lot to say to me about this show,
and we're really invested, and I was glad. I think

(07:16):
it's incredibly cool. It was. It was one of the
kind of delightful, slightly surprising things that came out of
doing this for me was the number of gentlemen who
were fully in, totally engaged and had not been dragged
to the table necessarily. You know what It's like. It's
like comic books, you know, like the Marvel stories, and
people who don't do comic books so like, oh, comic books,

(07:38):
but somehow they still have this very lauded place in
our storytelling genres. But because their romance novels and they're
sort of geared towards women, the idea was that that
didn't exist, and I feel like we helped remove that
a little bit, I'm hoping, or at least the fans did.
Absolutely And I always compared it to gumshoe novels of
the thirty sporties and fifties, which when you look at

(08:00):
like Dashall Hammett. Those were pulp novels, but now they're
lauded and applauded, and that was a mail genre. So
I'll get off the soapbox. Here we go. Our point is,
Julia rocks. Julia does rock. I've got a question for
you from Carlo Maria. Where did the idea come to
incorporate Marina into the first season? Oh well, and is

(08:21):
she the same Marina that appears in the Eloise book? Okay,
so technically I know this. She is the same Marina
that appears in the Eloise book. However, she's not. She isn't.
She isn't. There was a bigger story that was made
that we thought, you know, the actress is so interesting.
The story became so interesting, but she's not technically the
same like originally the idea was going to be that

(08:44):
she was. And then as the story grew and we
built the story out for season one, and Chris was
building the story out for season one, she stopped doing that. Marina. Okay,
all that makes sense. See excellent answer. I knew you
can answer that something's happened. No, exactly, Betsy and I
are going to be right back welcome back. So we've

(09:07):
asked people to send in some Bridgton questions. So all right,
let's just jump right in. We're jumping in. There is
one question that I don't have an answer to, by
the way, which I've fascinated. No, you have the answer
to the one approach, Yes, any clue you got to
do that? I was like, wait, where did that? Okay?
Here it is, um hey, wait, Beth post Tema or

(09:28):
Beth Postuma says, do you have any idea what happened
to Daphne's necklace, the gift from the Prince that she
left on the stone wall in the garden before making
out with Simon. I've seen so many comments along the
lines of what you left the diamond necklace there? Do
you know? Not a clue? Neither do I didn't know
I noticed it. And by the way, how many times
have we seen this episode and not once did it
actually occur to me that the diamond necklace was on

(09:52):
the I mean, I don't even know what to say
about it. Think about how many times we have seen
the episode, because you have to remember, like, we're not
just people who who like watch the show. We edited
the episode between every frame, never once occurred to me
that maybe she'll love the diamond necklace on the wall.
I yeah, thank you for that. Maybe I'll go back.
I'm going to go back and look for it. I know.
I gotta say. I wouldn't leave a diamond necklace on

(10:13):
a wall. Are you crazy? It was a diamond necklace,
I'd be wearing it right now exactly all the time.
By the way, especially that one, that's a really good one.
I know, Hi, my name is Aubrey Clunker, and I
would love to know what kind of goes into auditioning
for Bridgerton. And I think one of the questions you're
asking is what did we look for in auditions? And

(10:33):
you know, I think in both cases we were really
looking for It's hard to put a finger on, but
we're really looking for two people who, as actors we
knew had the capacity to grow over the course of
the season. Because a lot of this show was about
starting these two characters in one place and watching them
evolve as time goes on, and with Daphanie in a

(10:56):
weird way was especially complicated because it's a character that
has to start very much under the constraints of society,
but then over the course of the season really comes
into her own matures and is able to become what
I would call more of a modern woman. So the
tendency very often was to approach the character purely like

(11:19):
it was two thous and nineteen at that point. And
the amazing thing about Phoebe Dinavore was she came in
and she both had the sense of understanding the formality
and the rules and the restrictions of the period that
it might have on our character, but also instinctively and
immediately we saw in her the understanding of the evolution

(11:43):
becoming a modern woman would really occur, and it was
an amazing moment. And Reggae, we just knew that he
had all the qualities of what we would look for
in the perfect duke. You also just want to complex actor.
These are complex actors who can pull off complex things.
You want people you can write almost anything for, no

(12:06):
they can pull it off exactly. And we knew that
about Reggae, and we knew that about Phoebe, and that
made it simple and honestly, all the rest of the
actors same thing. Do we have any deleted scenes we
wish were included. I think so much of the show
is in there there's one delicious scene from the first episode.

(12:29):
Now y'all are thinking, you guys, that's I know, I
know where everybody's brain away. Which the deleted scenes are
there anymore of those good ones? But there's one delicious
scene and that's that. But it didn't really go with
the Duke's character. He was basically with a lot of
ladies in a house of ill repute. Yes, and it
was maybe ten seconds long, one shot, but it was
an amazing shot. That's a good that's actually a good one.

(12:49):
You'll forever want to know that you didn't get to
see it because you won't get to see it. Cherish asks,
what does the bee signify at the end of the season.
Is it a And my answer to that, Cherish is
read the books. It is a clue, it really is.
I think that's everything. We can say. Thank you, everybody.

(13:09):
It was wonderful getting Christ so much fun. That's it
was so much fun seeing you in person, even talking Bridgerton.
More know, we're in the middle of making Bridgerton too,
and we could tell you things, but we won't. We're
not going to can't do it. We're going to keep
them secret. That Canna happen. Nope, okay, okay, So now
it's going to out. Our lives are rich and full. Rigerton.

(13:30):
The Official Podcast as executive produced by Lauren Holman, Sandy Bailey,
Holly Fry and me Gabrielle Collins. Our producer is Chris
Van Duson and our editor it is Vincent de Johnny Bridgeton.
The Official Podcast is a production of Shondaland Audio in
partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from Shondaland Audio, visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere you get your

(13:51):
favorite shows.
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Gabrielle Collins

Gabrielle Collins

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