April 21, 2022 • 44 mins
Novel series author Julia Quinn and Ruth Gemmell (Lady Violet Bridgerton) join host Gabrielle Collins to explore all the grief, sibling rivalry and heartfelt moments jam packed into Episode 3, “A Bee In Your Bonnet.” Director Alex Pillai shares deleted scenes and what it took to bring those powerful back stories, and a competitive game of pall mall to life.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Bridgerton The Official Podcast is a partnership between Shondaland Audio
and iHeartRadio. Welcome to Bridgerton the Official Podcast, your exclusive
peak behind the curtain of Shondaland's Bridgerton series, and before
we meet our guests this week, here's a brief recap
of episode two oh three. A Bee in your Bonnet
explores Antony and Violet Bridgerton's past, taking us to two
(00:22):
pivotal moments, Edmund Bridgerton's death and the birth of Hyacinth. Meanwhile,
in the present Edwina prepares for dinner with the Bridgerton's
and a fan favorite sport breaks out. It's time for
Paul Mall. Joining host Gabrielle Collins this week on her
deep dive into episode two oh three are Bridgerton novel
series author Julia Quinn and Lady Violet Bridgerton Ruth Gemmel.
(00:44):
Plus a little later we'll hear from Alex Pillay, the
director of episodes two oh three and two oh four. Ruth,
it is such a pleasure to see you and to
welcome you. I have lots of curiosities about how you
pour yourself into a role. Probably on the complete other
(01:05):
end of the Spectrum. Did Covid change the set very much?
Is that a given? Yes? It did. It is extraordinary
for people to be in masks all day and although
we had the sad shield, once we were doing the
scene it felt normal, but so then we were suddenly
(01:27):
being normal with each other, whereas everybody else is still
very much masked up. And also the amount of testing
and you couldn't really have been lovely to bring people
to set, and also because you're bubbled up, really you
end up I did for the entire year the hardest
or any friends or family, because you run the risk
of kind of bringing something in. The amount of testing
(01:50):
was extraordinary, and it whoever ended up being shown that
they had had it, it was caught before anything. And
that was an amazing feat. And I think that it
was probably the safest place I could have been. Wow. Yeah,
but a strange strange year to do it many, isn't it,
Julia Quinn. Covid made it a little different from your
(02:12):
first time being on set. You were there for season
one for a day or two, two or three days, actually,
weren't you. Yeah? So for season one I visited London twice.
First time I got to go on location later and
got to see the set that they had built in
the large sound stage, which is unbelievable. I mean, that's
it's just mind boggling. So I got to go for
season two. It was on location at Hampton Court Palace,
(02:35):
which was on the sound stage, where that you see
a little more of just what's going on, and in general,
it's mostly just there are people running around and they
all look incredibly busy and for the most part, I
have no idea what they're doing, but they seem to
be very, very good at their jobs and enjoying it.
When Bridges in season one came out, it definitely felt
(02:56):
like it was an escapist kind of thing. This time,
I feel like it's not as escapist and very much
seeing a little bit more behind the facade. Happened this
time around grounded in the human experience, and it starts,
of course with them, although I'm going to find a
(03:16):
different way, but with the Lord Featherington now being absent
and the predicament that that Featherington household find themselves in,
so it sort of impermeates every path of society like
it would today, but in different ways like it would today.
Jack Featherington coming from the America's I don't remember. Is
(03:39):
that a departure from the book. Yeah, he's not in
the book at all. He's an entirely new character. And
I think the father is long dead in the books.
You know, this, this new plot involving Jack Featherington is
entirely new. I like it. It's really fun. By opening
this up by you know, saying I'm seeding creative control,
(04:00):
I'm giving it to you guys because I want more
people involved that were able to make it this bigger, bolder,
and more colorful place and world. And even while doing that,
before they plot out and figure out season two, which
is based on The Viscount Who Loved Me, they've gone
through all eight books to really get to know these characters.
(04:21):
And I think that's a real testament to how what
a deep dive the writers did, because they've gone through
all eight books. Like, I'm not somebody who rereads my
own books, but I did sort of a fairly thorough
skim because I wrote this book called The Wit and
Wisdom in Bridgetain, which collected a lot of quotations from
the books, and so I had to go back and
look at them, and each chapter in this book focuses
(04:44):
on a different character, and you know, like the Anthony chapter,
most quotes come from his book, Violet obviously comes from
all eight of them, and so it was really fascinating
to see her interacting with all the children and how
in many ways she becomes the most developed character of
them all. So I just I really love Violet. I
just wanted to talk about her a little bit because
(05:04):
I love Violet. I feel like we don't see Violet continuously,
but she comes around just like the light on a lighthouse,
and it's just like she like shines that wisdom and
she's like, you know, does her thing, she just comes back.
That's yeah, that's how she is to me. Especially in
this season. I think there's that there's a moment when
(05:26):
when she's suggesting certain women to Anthony and he sort
of says, how, I can't remember the lines now, but
I think he sort of puts them down for stupid
sort of indiscretions that they've done. And I think she's
still we'd like him to go on a date and
get to know that's the point. Get to know them.
Get to know them, then you make your choice and
(05:47):
if you're not interested, fine, but get to know them.
I think in terms of having her children marry for love,
I think that demands respect and the idea that you
give in to every whim of someone else is not respectful.
And also it's not how her marriage was built. When
you are all in the I guess, like a family room,
(06:10):
I am curious if it's one long take sometimes or
if it's pieces, because there's often a lot going on. Yeah,
there is. I'm not sure the family scenes ever have
one long take, but then then I could be I
could stand corrected. But I think simply because everyone has
(06:33):
an interjection, everyone at some point, even if it's sort
of a hello or something, you know, it's it's everyone
says something. So therefore there are so many children that
it takes it. It takes a lot, which is probably
why it descends into everyone become really raucous. You guys
(06:54):
are so sharp, though. I just it's so good. I
love the family thing. They're always a lot of fun.
I mean, clearly, if there's a lot of words to
be said, people are very respectful and very supportive and
all the rest of it. But I adore my children,
absolutely adore my children, and they are they are really funny.
And they rip the piss out of me. So it's
(07:16):
quite It's just a nice atmosphere to be around. There's
something else I need, clarification and ruth costumes and make
up throw us in there. Some of those outfits, they
are they are embellished by hand. And the lovely team
that we're working on my dress as Deads and Steve
and all of them are just amazing. And I have
(07:37):
never dressed so well in my life ever. I'm a
disaster and combarrassing to viol to beautiful, so beautiful. Originally
I had a mister Pearl corset, which you know, he's
extraordinary in himself, and you know people will know famously
Kim Kardashian War one. I think it was at the
macdaland and they are extraordinary, but they are unforget really unforgiving.
(08:02):
And the corsets are well, yes, you know, I think
those things are literally made to get in a car,
be taken somewhere, show you show your whears, and then
go home again. Whereas all day from early on until
the end of the day, it's hard work. Going to
the toilet is a challenge and it's really hard work.
(08:22):
But I had a new one, so I so I
it was much more flexible. So I'm all over that
one at the moment by request or you know. I
think it's just a slight twist in the direction of
costume and stuff like that, and it's lovely. Wow. I
still find it's so interesting that corsets were such an
important piece of your pieces because the shape of the
(08:46):
dresses most of them, if not all of them, are
Empire line. Yeah. Yeah, it pulls my stomach in Gabrielle,
that's that's that's the benefit of it. Piolet would still
be looking like she's to give birth to Horrizon. After
the break, we'll hear from director Alex Pillay as he
(09:07):
breaks down the filming of some of these heartbreaking back stories.
Welcome back to Bridgerton the Official Podcast, Alex Pillay. We're
really just trying to like be bumblebees on the wall,
if you will, to kind of feel like we were
there with you. And you've got two of the episodes
(09:31):
that are like there's like a shift, huge shift for
I think the entire world at Bridgerton. So we just
want to get into that and really how you brought
yourself to the show and to the script and worked
with production and the actors. Wow, we got some magic
on this show on these two episodes. I'm so proud
(09:53):
of these fantastic actors. They lost themselves in the story
and that must have been pleasure to work with. We
try and create a working atmosphere where an actor can
really connect with their inner soul for one of a
better phrase, for their inner understanding of the human condition.
(10:15):
So what we try and do is, first of all,
create situations so they've got a complete understanding of where
the characters at. And then on the set, make that
working condition as free and as open as possible within
a very tight schedule and all the other practical things.
(10:36):
So it's kind of like a controlled chaos. It's it's
like being free, but actually doing it within three takes
and before lunch, which has to be at one forty five.
You know, it's a very strange thing. And what you
have to do as a director is try and allow
(10:56):
the actors to forget that, and as an actor, you
have to allow yourself to forget that. And this is
what makes a great film and television actor like Phoebe,
like Johnny, like Ruth. You know, they know that they're
going to be crying about their dead husband. But actually, yeah,
you know, alex is going to have to move on
at twelve thirty because the horses are waiting. It was
(11:17):
also really lovely to be able to be given the
chance to kind of show why the Bridgetons are the
way they are and why she is adamant in a
way to have her children marry for love and trying
to well to show them all, to show them all
a different way. And in terms of some of the scenes,
(11:38):
particularly when Edmund dies, those sort of scenes with Anthony
are just wonderful. It was a very safe environment and
a lovely way to explore that those kind of emotions.
We see more of why Anthony is the way he
is and the things that happened nine or ten years
(12:00):
prior to his moment right now that has shaped him.
My big question is why bees? Why bees? Julia? The
bees came, you know, for a couple of reasons. One,
I'm a bit of a science geek, and so I
love the idea of like, you know, like did they
understand allergies? You know, how does that work? And so
(12:22):
that just kind of I was like, well, why not
a beasting? And I just thought it was this really
interesting thing that I hadn't seen done, not in a
romance novel like that. Wow, And you know, it seemed
in some ways it seems kind. I've seen people be
like it's the silliest thing, Like, you know, all this
stuff about a bee, people make fun of it as
being They're like, this is bonkers. This is a bananas plot,
except people die of beastings all the time. This is
(12:45):
actually a very real thing that happens. And think about it.
What would it be like if you lived in a
time before people understood that, or or maybe they kind
of understood that these things happened, but you know, they
didn't have EPI pens. So I love bringing in elements
of medicine in medical history into the books and trying
(13:10):
to figure out how is this understood. Then Rupert Evans
playing Itman is going to die, and Ruth playing Violet
is going to run out pregnant and cradle his dying body.
And we talked a huge amount me and Rupert about
the anaphylaxis that he's dying from us. He's choking to
death internally, his throat has closed up. He cannot breathe,
(13:34):
But what he can do is look his wife in
the eyes and love her. Oh my god, not at
need to deliver that. Then Ruth gave us the reply,
I was wondering where your head was during all of that?
For me, I would say predominantly in grief, because it's
(13:56):
I think grief is something we all can identify by
with as I lost my mother quite early on, and
I think I didn't deal with grief very well because
you're young, you don't know how to. And I certainly
went through those seven stages if you like it. I
(14:17):
also understandably put her on a pedestal afterwards, which also
doesn't you know, we are all human. She was human,
so we are all flawed in all its wonderful ways.
But I think that slows grieving, the grieving process down,
And also I think probably now we talk about it more,
(14:40):
I should think. I think we acknowledge that it needs
to be dealt with rather than just sat on. Sitting
on it never does anyone any good, really does it? Right?
Those feelings come up in different quantities if you like,
but you never forget. I think you never get the
death of someone you love, You never get past. You
(15:00):
just learn to live with it. You become a different person.
And I think in terms of a death of a parent.
I think at the same exactly the same time, I
felt older than i'd ever felt, but I also felt
like a child, and it didn't make any sense. But
I think it's because it's a confusing time. It can
(15:21):
remind us that life is so fragile, this little little
creature that's a fraction of our size, and like change
the course of everything for everyone in an instant. Oh yeah,
there's kind of two parts to that question, which is
why is he's so afraid of dying and that I'll
address that one first. That is, I've never actually said
(15:43):
who this was. I guess it will now my father
in law, who is in his eighties now, but his
father died very very young, and in fact, his father,
so this would be my husband's grandfather, was one of
the first people in the world to get open heart surgery.
He'd had scarlet fever as a child and as a result,
(16:05):
had you know, heart defect because of it. I don't
know if you call it a defect, but scarlet fever
will will hurt you, will injure your heart. And so
he's one of the very first people in the world
to get open heart surgery. And he died on the table.
And I believe, well, I think my father in law
was in college when it happened, so his father was
(16:26):
in his late forties, I think maybe early fifties. I
can't remember that. Yeah, And I found out much later
that this affected him, and I've actually never spoken to
him directly about this. I was talking about this with
my mother in law and she said to me that
he was just convinced for much of his life that
he would die at the same age as his father.
(16:49):
And I thought, well, that's so interesting. And when I
learned about this, he had already gone past this. So
I spoke to my aunt, who is a psychologist, and
she said that this is actually a very very common thing,
more so among men than women. But it's a very
very common thing for people whose parents die young, especially
if they were close to that parent, that you just
(17:10):
cannot imagine going beyond what your parents did. And so
I thought to myself, what an interesting bit of personality
or backstory. It's not even just backstory, it's a piece
of backstory that just becomes an integral part of the character.
But what an interesting character development to give to somebody
as a viewer And reader was seeing it as Anthony
(17:35):
was dodging love because he was afraid to lose love
not so much a little Bertie told me that the
writer's room was kind of weaving it as Anthony didn't
want to feel like he wouldn't want to cause grief
(17:56):
the way his father's passing caused grief for Violet. I
think it's both, yeah, I think it's both. Yeah. But
then after your father died, a wall went up inside you,
as love had become some some weakness instead of your
greatest strength. And that is not you. You deserve the
(18:20):
feeling that I had the moment your father placed that
ring on my finger. It was a promise not just
of the sacred commitment that we were making to one another,
but a sacred lovetill place in You cannot mean that
I seek an amiable partner with whom I may share
a pleasant life, untouched by heartbreak and the ravages of grief.
(18:42):
I TH's a huge weight on my shoulders, Gabby, to
know that I was going to be in charge of
showing Edmund Bridgeton, the father of the family, to show
him alive and to show his death, and to show
the effects of that on both Anthony and Ruth, and
we were blessed to be joined by Rupert Evans as
(19:04):
as Edmund who's just a fantasticly talented actor and indeed
a director on My ADAD. And we had a little
short rehearsal for this, I think a couple of hours
in an afternoon, just to get sense of who he is,
what his relationship was with Ruth, who was such a
warm and generous actor herself, and then his relationship with Antony,
(19:27):
and how much Antony looks up to his dad, so
he tries to copy him. And if you look at
it for a third or all time, you might see
that Johnny is very deliberately copying his father's body language.
And we talked, you know, me and Johnny talked a
lot about what kind of young man is he and
(19:48):
what he's unformed. I mean, Jonathan is enormously lucky himself
to have a young person's face. He looks great. I
hope we remnaged to date him a little bit. But
actually what it was for Anthony, his character, it's a
story of how he was formed, because before that he's
a young boy. He can't to the breakfast, he stuffs
(20:10):
his face, he's making like a sandwich with honey and
bacon in it. I mean, it's just a boy's sandwich. Really.
He goes shooting. He doesn't know how to shoot properly
because he can't concentrate. He can't he hasn't got that
maturity to really control himself in the way that his
father does. So all that time he trying to learn
off his father. Because what happens then to Anthony is
(20:31):
he has to learn how to be someone like his father.
He has to grow up, and he has to grow
up first because he's been peppered with questions about the house.
Quite an incredible scene of being lost amongst those questions.
But of course the biggest, the biggest trial for him
is the birth of his sister. Well, please lie down
(20:54):
still your mind. I will find out what he's asking
for me and return it immediately. He is asking to
decide which one of us should have me or the baby.
You kill the baby, you save the mother, You cut
the mother, you save the child. It is not your
choice to make, it is might it is his lordship's choice.
(21:19):
I mean, it's shot very simply. Any number of technical
difficulties sheeting that nothing to do with the actors. But
you know, it was raining outside and because it was
a very very old building called west Wickham, we couldn't
put rain on the outside of the building, so we
had to project it with with with visual projectors onto
the windows. I mean all crazy, crazy sort of technical
(21:41):
things that we had to get around to give it
that sense of a real elemental birthing moment. You know,
the rain, the lightning, life of some kind was going
to happen or death. And no, I'm very are you
very proud to being polled say it's It's just it's
(22:04):
really heartwrenching, like she's giving birth, she lost her husband.
There's there's it's like a tornado of stuff that's happening.
And I'm wondering where you were mentally when writing about Violet.
How and why did you like make that Violet's experience? Well, Violet,
(22:25):
they became Violet's experience because I had the plot was
developed that way for Anthony's character to create what we
talked about with Anthony about him having lost his dad
so young. And you know, if you set that up,
then Violet has obviously lost her husband. There's a moment
in her birth scene where she's I guess she's breached,
(22:46):
Like I guess the baby is not positioned correctly, and
it's it could be baby or mother kind of a
birth situation. And they're telling Anthony it's up to him
to decide who would survive. That's not in the book.
That's like the meanest thing to do someone. When those
pages landed on our desks, I just think, whoever that
(23:11):
I have the opportunity and the privilege of shooting it,
because again, it speaks of the universality of the childbirth
experience for half our world and the dangers that are
in errand in it, even in the modern or the
privileged parts of the globe, but certainly absolutely a reason
(23:34):
for female mortality throughout the rest of the world. And
that incredible decision and the fact that doctors aren't even
listening to Violet. They need his advice because he's now
Lord Bridgeton. They need his say. So she's saying do
this for you know, Yeah, she screams speak to me,
and I'm just like, oh my goodness, they're talking over
(23:57):
what a intense experience was filming that. I cannot tell you.
I mean, I shot that on my birthday. I just
thought I'm so blown away by this. I don't even
have the energy to speak to my family after this.
You know, I didn't tell you what it's my birthday,
but it was just like, wow, that's that's what a
(24:17):
hell of a birthday present. Because the scene is so tense,
it's so truthful. Again, actors are very generous, you know
they can Ruth can stay in character but be very humane,
and then when the camera's ready to roll, she will
go into this thing, this ferocious mama there saying that
you come, I'm terrified of you. See I'm I'm the
(24:41):
kind of actor that loves something grim, So I really
I love all of that kind of stuff. So I'm
in my I'm in my element. Can you take us
on set with you to those moments me? Ruth, I
have no children, so I've never given birth, and I
needed to be able to feel that that I got
(25:04):
something physically right or was it. I mean, other people
will have a judgment on whether I got it right
or not, but at least that I was in the realm,
the right realm, and I had the amazing penny. They
had a midwife come in and talk to me. Hilarious
thing was it was preparing with Penny. They put us
in a hotel and it was during COVID, so there
was there was nobody in this hotel and we went
(25:26):
into the dining room so it was empty, and I
virtually went through the whole stages of labor with Penny.
And I did think it was funny if anyone came
in and sort of wandered into the dining room while
I was sort of screaming and things like that. But
oh my goodness, so Ruth, you're in this hotel, like, okay,
(25:47):
let's go over with five centimeters. Feels like it feels
like now like it wasn't bit like that. So I
needed to get the physicality right first that I felt
comfortable enough that I could then constant trait on the
words and the scene and the grief. I'm not particularly
a method actor, so I did preparation, but I don't
(26:09):
sort of stay in it, so I'm usually sort of
trying to crack jokes in between or sort of you know,
and that makes me comfortable. That makes me comfortable when
I feel feel supported like that. But the crew were very,
very respectful and lovely. But they are a lovely crew.
How cool though, like that you actually had a midwife
(26:29):
come and go through that with you. I remember you
all have choreographers, like you have Jack Murphy intimacy coordinators.
I didn't even think to ask, did you have a
midwife for someone very experienced and having seven plus children
come and teach you the ways of the birth? Yeah? Yeah,
(26:52):
it was lovely and she was lovely, and it was lovely.
That's amazing. The thing about Violet is that she develops
a lot over the course of eight books, and in
some ways she's become one of my favorite characters because
in many ways I spent more time with her than
any of the other characters, which is ironic because she
never really starts in her own book. So the development
(27:15):
of violence, experience in her grief, and how she thinks
about it actually comes through in all eight books. In
terms of where I was, I will be honest, I
did not know that kind of grief. Then, you know,
with Violet, I think I feel kind of bad. I mean,
she ended up with this horrible, grief stricken story because
I was creating this arc for her son. She just
(27:36):
kind of came, you know, in terms of like me
being the puppet master, she just got pulled along for
the ride. Yeah, but it made for such a deep
and wonderful character. And the other thing I love about Violet,
and this is something that was very purposeful, was I
wanted to have a good mother. I feel like literature
is just overflowing with bad mothers, you know, or or
(28:00):
misunderstood mothers, or mothers who get the blame for everything.
It's just but I was like, you know, let's hear
it for good mothers. Let's give a we want a
good mother out there. Yeah, And so I was like,
I'm going to give the world violent. She's gonna be
the best mother there is. I just love that she
has these glimmers of being this wise person, a champion
(28:21):
for love and then also an agent for her body.
Oh my god, she's standing right there and they're like,
be quiet, a little lady. This young teenage boy has
to figure out what to do, like save a sibling
or save his mother, and she's just like, he doesn't
get to decide. It's my body. I get to decide.
(28:43):
And it's like this this little glimmer of Violet, I
feel like representing women's independence in a way that we
see in the other female characters throughout the show. Absolutely
I'm pretty sure she's the coolest person on the plant
Ana literally. After the break, we'll return with some lighter topics,
(29:04):
including Paul Mall and Anthony's Quest for love. Welcome back.
Let's return to the conversation with director Alex Pille. Were
there any moments during the game that the Bridgetons were
playing with the Sharma's palmal that were like favorite moments
(29:25):
for you? This is a lot of takes, a lot
of different shots you had to catch. How did you
visually tackle that? Luckily we shot at every about two
and a half days or something. And there's some basic
storytelling donalog storytelling that's going to happen, because there's Donald
with Anthony gets the better of Kate, Kate gets the
better of Anthony, with Anthony's trying to show Edwina how
(29:49):
to play, and Edwina fails. So you have all that,
But what the reasons is any Donalo covering the actual
game playing as such? Now, we had some basic rules
that we had discovered or researched a bad how to
play this game, and then we kind of made up
some ourselves, some from the book, but mostly based on
(30:09):
the historic game of Pall Mall and actually was quite
a complex game. And towards the end of the shoot,
I thought, shooting this sequence, I thought, well, we've done
the dialogue. You've done it all brilliantly. We've tried to
show that Edwina has been left out, she leaves, she's deflated,
and yet Daphne's aware that Kate and Anthony Kana playings
(30:32):
real rival. Yes, but I felt there was no free
form play between between the characters. So I think on
the day that we did the kind of the mallet sharing,
whether they dole out the mallets and they were all
there and they fought over them, and very quick fire
dialogue and all that, and Johnny said, cut, Alex, we've
had such fun, and I said, look, it's a Friday, right,
(30:54):
We've got about an hour and a half at the
end of the day. I just want to set it
aside and I want you guys to just play a
game of palm. So you'll just tea off start on
hoop one and we'll get and then Shelley and Ruth
Agile would be watching, and the two children will be
watching from the side, and I just want you to play.
(31:15):
And so the last hour and a half on that Friday,
end of the week. It was a lovely it was
sunshine evening, sunshine coming down, and they just played and
badly or well, I mean so, I'll tell you. Phoebe
was really good. Her ball really went through the hoop
I think once, which is quite a hard thing to do.
(31:36):
And actually Simone was very good as well, and they
just whacked it. Wait were you capturing this on film? Yeah?
You know, wow, so some of that game playing is
in there. You know. We're just trying to give it
all a bit of mood, really, a bit of just
what why why do the fans love pal Math so much?
(31:56):
What is that? You know? Just I think that scene
it could have been anything. It didn't have to be
pal mall, but the interaction of the characters in that
scene I think is so familiar to anybody who ever
had a brother or sister. I joke that the Bridger
Tints have turned croquet into a blood sport. It's just,
you know, they are so snarky with each other, you know,
(32:17):
in that sort of sense of competitiveness you have with
your siblings that you never quite have with anyone else
as much, you know, to the point where it's just
like I don't care if I win. It's just you
have to lose. You know. What is really interesting is
that that scene almost wasn't in the books. What happened was,
you know, I'm writing The Viscount who Loved Me, and
(32:40):
you know, it's it's the Enemies to Lovers trope. And
I got to this point where they had, you know,
reached a point where they liked each other finally, and
I'm looking at it and I'm thinking, I really kind
of thought, this is happening too soon. And and part
of that is that, you know, at that point, I
think that was maybe my tenth romance novel. I had
written you have a certain feel for where things should
(33:03):
be at what point, But it wasn't just that. It's like, okay, well,
if it's happening too soon, it probably means that I
didn't do a good job of showing why they no
longer hate each other. And there's nothing worse than a
romance novel where it's I hate you, I hate you,
I hate you, I hate you. Why can't you tell
that I love you? You know, you need to show,
(33:23):
all right, the readers needs to know why they And
so I'm reading it everyone I'm like, yeah, I haven't
done a good job with that, And so I tried
to think, what is the one thing that could convince
Kate that Anthony's not such a bad guy, And I
think it was seeing him with his family, seeing him
interact with his family, even in this maybe especially in
(33:45):
this crazy snarky way. I mean, but they are ready
to like hit each other over the head. But at
the same time, the love is there, and you can
see nobody could be a bad person who interacts with
his family quite like that. Yes, And so that's why
I ended up adding that scene in. And I've had
(34:05):
so much fun with it. I think it ended up
being like two or three chapters long. I mean, I
it was just pure fun to write, and it ended
up being such a fan favorite. Okay, so that's so okay.
My suspicions were right. It's you get to see siblings
tease each other and be playful, and like you said,
anyone who's got siblings, they know how it is. You
(34:30):
have the chance to best him. Oh no, be very
sportsman life nowadays. I was told on sportsman like conduct
was a requirement for this game fast learning. You are, indeed,
miss Schrauma. These eight siblings are so close, and they
counsel each other, they ate each other, and just seeing
them on a course, I kind of like saw it
(34:52):
as like a course of life kind of a way.
So maybe like a metaphor for the games of courtship
that they're playing in this particular her episode as well,
because we see Violet and Benedict and Colin counseling and
just kind of helping Anthony like figure out what's going
on with his heart. Well, she's got to move them along, really,
isn't She will take forever if she doesn't move them along.
(35:16):
So she wants them to have a marriage full of love,
and she has to keep guiding them. And you could
say that she points them in directions of people that
are unsuitable. But then as far as she's concerned, if
you don't go on a date, you're never going to
bloody know, So you know she's got to keep doing
that kind of right. Lovehood seems just super dutchess very well. Yes,
(35:40):
it does. Our matchmaking efforts last season. We're quite wise
eardied Lady Bridget. Yeah, perhaps we will have such success
again dry if they can somehow stay. Of course, I
think in the books definitely. In the book, she is
(36:00):
all they all talk at some point about how interfering
their mother is. They you know, they kind of bear
exasperated by it, But then as the mother, I think
she's equally exasperated by them. Do you think Violet knew
that Edwina was not the one? It seems like Violet
knew that or felt that. That's quite complicated in a way,
(36:25):
because I think she'd be up for it if she
knew that Anthony was throwing his whole heart and soul
into it, if he was if he had fallen in
love with her, then I think she would support it
no matter what. But I think that I see trouble
ahead if he doesn't give in and if she doesn't
behave any differently, but she will support it, but she
(36:48):
as as it goes on, I think you see what
first of all turns out to be seems to be
Kate just putting a spanner in the worlds and not
agreeing to the marriage, which I think Lady Danbrie tells
me at the at the races later. I think I
think she sees that there is something that where Anthony
has met as much in a way, and she just
(37:09):
needs him to see it, or at least admit it.
In my opinion, Edwina left herself out. She excluded herself,
She removed herself from the game. And I felt like
that should have been a moment where it was very,
very very clear to Anthony maybe I shouldn't propose to
this girl and just follow my heart. But he still
(37:31):
went for it. Is she being overshadowed by Kate, who
can't keep a lid on her own sharp tongue and personality.
Who's a better fit for the Bridgeton family. She's quick witted,
she's physically a debt, she's into competition. Edwina is the
other thing. He said Wayne was very young. You know,
(37:54):
she's eighteen, and in fact, there's a complicated family history.
She was mister Sears child by his first wife. Edwina
is the child from Shelley Conn's character Lady Sharma. Therefore,
there's an age difference between the difference in confidence. And however,
the great thing is that I do know that during
(38:17):
the whole season, Edwin's character grows herself, she grows up,
she becomes more confident. You know, she's in great hands
with Terita Chandran, who is a super clever person at
Oxford University graduate, I might add, and brings you a
real perception to the role to any acting she does,
(38:38):
you know, real understanding and wants to know everything about
the character, so you know, she's not finished by any means.
When I was thinking of this season as being like
seeing the male thinks bride perspective of the marriage market,
I realized that Anthony had unfulfilled wanderlust and that his
brothers are exploring their passions thet he's bound by duty
(39:03):
and all of that good stuff, just like his sisters,
and that his brothers get to see more and do more.
Is that true though, Yeah, in some ways, you know,
I don't know if he's ever been outside the country,
but in terms of having fewer opportunities than his brothers, yes,
in many ways, because he has a responsibility to this,
(39:26):
to the state, because you know, they it's kind of
like oldest takes all in sort of the English aristocracy
or the British aristocracy. It passes down through one line,
and that the idea is let's keep it at these
biggest states intact, you know, and they can give little
bits to the unentailed parts to other siblings whatever but
they really want to keep it intact, whereas and there
are some other countries where things get divided up and
(39:48):
then everything gets you know, much smaller and they lose power.
So this was the idea of this was to keep
the power in the family by keeping everything together. But
what happens is that the oldest you know, yeah, they're
inheriting all the wealth, all the power, but it also
means they're they're really bound to it. In many ways.
It's a huge responsibility. And so you know, there are
(40:12):
cases of you know this in fighting where maybe the
younger people want to inherit or you know, you hurt
all these things, you know, you know, sibling fratricide or whatever,
all these things. But at the same time, I think
there were a lot of younger siblings who are like,
oh my gosh, thank thank heavens, I'm not the oldest.
I mean, they don't get to do anything that they
have to answer to this giant estate. And so it
(40:34):
is kind of this double edged sword where yeah, you
inherit everything, you get the title, you get the money,
you get the big house, but you also get a
huge amount of responsibility and and you can't necessarily just
take off and leave. I mean they looked at that
a little bit in season one with you know, Simon
comes back and they discover, like, you know, some things
have gone bad on his estate because he hasn't been
(40:57):
taken care of it. And the lively hoods of hundreds
and hundreds of people rely on you. So it is
a very very big responsibility and I think he feels
it very keenly. Are there any other themes that you
felt like you got to really explore other than love? Friendship?
(41:18):
It's lovely in season two to have the relationship between
Violet and Lady Danbury's very much a given in season one,
but you see more of them together and how their relationships.
As we all have relationships, they become fractured and sometimes
you forgive your friends easier than you forgive your family.
(41:40):
But you choose your friends rather than your family. So
so that was nice to kind of delve into that
those roles. Really, that's right. You just reminded me there's
a moment the two of you or maybe not at odds,
but maybe you know, and you just start cracking up. Um,
(42:03):
that was a really sweet moment. Yeah, And Adua is lovely.
It's a good it's a good relationship. Yes, tell me
about working with Adua and Joe. Fantastic, Absolutely fantastic. Yeah,
I mean she's a store art of the theater here
and she's cold. You could not pick a lovelier woman.
And yeah, it's so it's nice to explore that. We
(42:25):
have a lot of fun, a lot of fun. Do
you have any other favorite moments from the entire experience
of shooting season two? The people. I think it's the
people that make it so wonderful. They are a really
lovely bunch of people who are very supportive and very talented,
and yeah, yeah, there aren't any egos, which is lovely,
(42:50):
and it's it's a joy to be part of. It's exhausting,
but it's a good exhaustion, you know. So I'm proud
to be part of something that they're all in and
I mean crew as well, and the crew well, fantastic,
really lovely. It's nice to feel, in some my new
(43:13):
way that you're part of it. I think one of
my counterparts at chandaland we were really giddy when we
learned we'd be talking with you, and we were like
talking about all the things we have to go back
and watch and um, so this has just been really,
really awesome speaking with you. Well, it's lovely speaking to
(43:33):
you to thank you so much for joining us again
on this podcast. And yeah, just thank you, thank you,
thank you. This is this is so much fun. This
is as I tell people, this is way more fun
than actually writing a book. Thank you for joining us
(43:53):
on this deep dive into the world of Bridgerton. That's
not all from Julia Quinn and Alex Pillay join us
next week as they returned to breakdown episode two oh
four with even more from behind the scenes. If you're
enjoying this show, please subscribe, share with your friends, rate,
or leave us a review. And if you haven't finished
binging Bridgerton on Netflix, please go do that so you
can enjoy all of the juicy spoilers with us. Bridgerton.
(44:15):
The Official Podcast is executive produced by Sandy Bailey, Lauren Holman,
Tyler Klang, and Gabrielle Collins. Our producer and editor is
Vince to Johnny Bridgerton. The Official Podcast is a production
of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts
from Shondaland Audio, visit the iHeartRadio app or anywhere you
(44:38):
subscribe to your favorite shows,
Bridgerton The Official Podcast is a partnership between Shondaland Audio
and iHeartRadio. Welcome to Bridgerton the Official Podcast, your exclusive
peak behind the curtain of Shondaland's Bridgerton series, and before
we meet our guests this week, here's a brief recap
of episode two oh three. A Bee in your Bonnet
explores Antony and Violet Bridgerton's past, taking us to two
(00:22):
pivotal moments, Edmund Bridgerton's death and the birth of Hyacinth. Meanwhile,
in the present Edwina prepares for dinner with the Bridgerton's
and a fan favorite sport breaks out. It's time for
Paul Mall. Joining host Gabrielle Collins this week on her
deep dive into episode two oh three are Bridgerton novel
series author Julia Quinn and Lady Violet Bridgerton Ruth Gemmel.
(00:44):
Plus a little later we'll hear from Alex Pillay, the
director of episodes two oh three and two oh four. Ruth,
it is such a pleasure to see you and to
welcome you. I have lots of curiosities about how you
pour yourself into a role. Probably on the complete other
(01:05):
end of the Spectrum. Did Covid change the set very much?
Is that a given? Yes? It did. It is extraordinary
for people to be in masks all day and although
we had the sad shield, once we were doing the
scene it felt normal, but so then we were suddenly
(01:27):
being normal with each other, whereas everybody else is still
very much masked up. And also the amount of testing
and you couldn't really have been lovely to bring people
to set, and also because you're bubbled up, really you
end up I did for the entire year the hardest
or any friends or family, because you run the risk
of kind of bringing something in. The amount of testing
(01:50):
was extraordinary, and it whoever ended up being shown that
they had had it, it was caught before anything. And
that was an amazing feat. And I think that it
was probably the safest place I could have been. Wow. Yeah,
but a strange strange year to do it many, isn't it,
Julia Quinn. Covid made it a little different from your
(02:12):
first time being on set. You were there for season
one for a day or two, two or three days, actually,
weren't you. Yeah? So for season one I visited London twice.
First time I got to go on location later and
got to see the set that they had built in
the large sound stage, which is unbelievable. I mean, that's
it's just mind boggling. So I got to go for
season two. It was on location at Hampton Court Palace,
(02:35):
which was on the sound stage, where that you see
a little more of just what's going on, and in general,
it's mostly just there are people running around and they
all look incredibly busy and for the most part, I
have no idea what they're doing, but they seem to
be very, very good at their jobs and enjoying it.
When Bridges in season one came out, it definitely felt
(02:56):
like it was an escapist kind of thing. This time,
I feel like it's not as escapist and very much
seeing a little bit more behind the facade. Happened this
time around grounded in the human experience, and it starts,
of course with them, although I'm going to find a
(03:16):
different way, but with the Lord Featherington now being absent
and the predicament that that Featherington household find themselves in,
so it sort of impermeates every path of society like
it would today, but in different ways like it would today.
Jack Featherington coming from the America's I don't remember. Is
(03:39):
that a departure from the book. Yeah, he's not in
the book at all. He's an entirely new character. And
I think the father is long dead in the books.
You know, this, this new plot involving Jack Featherington is
entirely new. I like it. It's really fun. By opening
this up by you know, saying I'm seeding creative control,
(04:00):
I'm giving it to you guys because I want more
people involved that were able to make it this bigger, bolder,
and more colorful place and world. And even while doing that,
before they plot out and figure out season two, which
is based on The Viscount Who Loved Me, they've gone
through all eight books to really get to know these characters.
(04:21):
And I think that's a real testament to how what
a deep dive the writers did, because they've gone through
all eight books. Like, I'm not somebody who rereads my
own books, but I did sort of a fairly thorough
skim because I wrote this book called The Wit and
Wisdom in Bridgetain, which collected a lot of quotations from
the books, and so I had to go back and
look at them, and each chapter in this book focuses
(04:44):
on a different character, and you know, like the Anthony chapter,
most quotes come from his book, Violet obviously comes from
all eight of them, and so it was really fascinating
to see her interacting with all the children and how
in many ways she becomes the most developed character of
them all. So I just I really love Violet. I
just wanted to talk about her a little bit because
(05:04):
I love Violet. I feel like we don't see Violet continuously,
but she comes around just like the light on a lighthouse,
and it's just like she like shines that wisdom and
she's like, you know, does her thing, she just comes back.
That's yeah, that's how she is to me. Especially in
this season. I think there's that there's a moment when
(05:26):
when she's suggesting certain women to Anthony and he sort
of says, how, I can't remember the lines now, but
I think he sort of puts them down for stupid
sort of indiscretions that they've done. And I think she's
still we'd like him to go on a date and
get to know that's the point. Get to know them.
Get to know them, then you make your choice and
(05:47):
if you're not interested, fine, but get to know them.
I think in terms of having her children marry for love,
I think that demands respect and the idea that you
give in to every whim of someone else is not respectful.
And also it's not how her marriage was built. When
you are all in the I guess, like a family room,
(06:10):
I am curious if it's one long take sometimes or
if it's pieces, because there's often a lot going on. Yeah,
there is. I'm not sure the family scenes ever have
one long take, but then then I could be I
could stand corrected. But I think simply because everyone has
(06:33):
an interjection, everyone at some point, even if it's sort
of a hello or something, you know, it's it's everyone
says something. So therefore there are so many children that
it takes it. It takes a lot, which is probably
why it descends into everyone become really raucous. You guys
(06:54):
are so sharp, though. I just it's so good. I
love the family thing. They're always a lot of fun.
I mean, clearly, if there's a lot of words to
be said, people are very respectful and very supportive and
all the rest of it. But I adore my children,
absolutely adore my children, and they are they are really funny.
And they rip the piss out of me. So it's
(07:16):
quite It's just a nice atmosphere to be around. There's
something else I need, clarification and ruth costumes and make
up throw us in there. Some of those outfits, they
are they are embellished by hand. And the lovely team
that we're working on my dress as Deads and Steve
and all of them are just amazing. And I have
(07:37):
never dressed so well in my life ever. I'm a
disaster and combarrassing to viol to beautiful, so beautiful. Originally
I had a mister Pearl corset, which you know, he's
extraordinary in himself, and you know people will know famously
Kim Kardashian War one. I think it was at the
macdaland and they are extraordinary, but they are unforget really unforgiving.
(08:02):
And the corsets are well, yes, you know, I think
those things are literally made to get in a car,
be taken somewhere, show you show your whears, and then
go home again. Whereas all day from early on until
the end of the day, it's hard work. Going to
the toilet is a challenge and it's really hard work.
(08:22):
But I had a new one, so I so I
it was much more flexible. So I'm all over that
one at the moment by request or you know. I
think it's just a slight twist in the direction of
costume and stuff like that, and it's lovely. Wow. I
still find it's so interesting that corsets were such an
important piece of your pieces because the shape of the
(08:46):
dresses most of them, if not all of them, are
Empire line. Yeah. Yeah, it pulls my stomach in Gabrielle,
that's that's that's the benefit of it. Piolet would still
be looking like she's to give birth to Horrizon. After
the break, we'll hear from director Alex Pillay as he
(09:07):
breaks down the filming of some of these heartbreaking back stories.
Welcome back to Bridgerton the Official Podcast, Alex Pillay. We're
really just trying to like be bumblebees on the wall,
if you will, to kind of feel like we were
there with you. And you've got two of the episodes
(09:31):
that are like there's like a shift, huge shift for
I think the entire world at Bridgerton. So we just
want to get into that and really how you brought
yourself to the show and to the script and worked
with production and the actors. Wow, we got some magic
on this show on these two episodes. I'm so proud
(09:53):
of these fantastic actors. They lost themselves in the story
and that must have been pleasure to work with. We
try and create a working atmosphere where an actor can
really connect with their inner soul for one of a
better phrase, for their inner understanding of the human condition.
(10:15):
So what we try and do is, first of all,
create situations so they've got a complete understanding of where
the characters at. And then on the set, make that
working condition as free and as open as possible within
a very tight schedule and all the other practical things.
(10:36):
So it's kind of like a controlled chaos. It's it's
like being free, but actually doing it within three takes
and before lunch, which has to be at one forty five.
You know, it's a very strange thing. And what you
have to do as a director is try and allow
(10:56):
the actors to forget that, and as an actor, you
have to allow yourself to forget that. And this is
what makes a great film and television actor like Phoebe,
like Johnny, like Ruth. You know, they know that they're
going to be crying about their dead husband. But actually, yeah,
you know, alex is going to have to move on
at twelve thirty because the horses are waiting. It was
(11:17):
also really lovely to be able to be given the
chance to kind of show why the Bridgetons are the
way they are and why she is adamant in a
way to have her children marry for love and trying
to well to show them all, to show them all
a different way. And in terms of some of the scenes,
(11:38):
particularly when Edmund dies, those sort of scenes with Anthony
are just wonderful. It was a very safe environment and
a lovely way to explore that those kind of emotions.
We see more of why Anthony is the way he
is and the things that happened nine or ten years
(12:00):
prior to his moment right now that has shaped him.
My big question is why bees? Why bees? Julia? The
bees came, you know, for a couple of reasons. One,
I'm a bit of a science geek, and so I
love the idea of like, you know, like did they
understand allergies? You know, how does that work? And so
(12:22):
that just kind of I was like, well, why not
a beasting? And I just thought it was this really
interesting thing that I hadn't seen done, not in a
romance novel like that. Wow, And you know, it seemed
in some ways it seems kind. I've seen people be
like it's the silliest thing, Like, you know, all this
stuff about a bee, people make fun of it as
being They're like, this is bonkers. This is a bananas plot,
except people die of beastings all the time. This is
(12:45):
actually a very real thing that happens. And think about it.
What would it be like if you lived in a
time before people understood that, or or maybe they kind
of understood that these things happened, but you know, they
didn't have EPI pens. So I love bringing in elements
of medicine in medical history into the books and trying
(13:10):
to figure out how is this understood. Then Rupert Evans
playing Itman is going to die, and Ruth playing Violet
is going to run out pregnant and cradle his dying body.
And we talked a huge amount me and Rupert about
the anaphylaxis that he's dying from us. He's choking to
death internally, his throat has closed up. He cannot breathe,
(13:34):
But what he can do is look his wife in
the eyes and love her. Oh my god, not at
need to deliver that. Then Ruth gave us the reply,
I was wondering where your head was during all of that?
For me, I would say predominantly in grief, because it's
(13:56):
I think grief is something we all can identify by
with as I lost my mother quite early on, and
I think I didn't deal with grief very well because
you're young, you don't know how to. And I certainly
went through those seven stages if you like it. I
(14:17):
also understandably put her on a pedestal afterwards, which also
doesn't you know, we are all human. She was human,
so we are all flawed in all its wonderful ways.
But I think that slows grieving, the grieving process down,
And also I think probably now we talk about it more,
(14:40):
I should think. I think we acknowledge that it needs
to be dealt with rather than just sat on. Sitting
on it never does anyone any good, really does it? Right?
Those feelings come up in different quantities if you like,
but you never forget. I think you never get the
death of someone you love, You never get past. You
(15:00):
just learn to live with it. You become a different person.
And I think in terms of a death of a parent.
I think at the same exactly the same time, I
felt older than i'd ever felt, but I also felt
like a child, and it didn't make any sense. But
I think it's because it's a confusing time. It can
(15:21):
remind us that life is so fragile, this little little
creature that's a fraction of our size, and like change
the course of everything for everyone in an instant. Oh yeah,
there's kind of two parts to that question, which is
why is he's so afraid of dying and that I'll
address that one first. That is, I've never actually said
(15:43):
who this was. I guess it will now my father
in law, who is in his eighties now, but his
father died very very young, and in fact, his father,
so this would be my husband's grandfather, was one of
the first people in the world to get open heart surgery.
He'd had scarlet fever as a child and as a result,
(16:05):
had you know, heart defect because of it. I don't
know if you call it a defect, but scarlet fever
will will hurt you, will injure your heart. And so
he's one of the very first people in the world
to get open heart surgery. And he died on the table.
And I believe, well, I think my father in law
was in college when it happened, so his father was
(16:26):
in his late forties, I think maybe early fifties. I
can't remember that. Yeah, And I found out much later
that this affected him, and I've actually never spoken to
him directly about this. I was talking about this with
my mother in law and she said to me that
he was just convinced for much of his life that
he would die at the same age as his father.
(16:49):
And I thought, well, that's so interesting. And when I
learned about this, he had already gone past this. So
I spoke to my aunt, who is a psychologist, and
she said that this is actually a very very common thing,
more so among men than women. But it's a very
very common thing for people whose parents die young, especially
if they were close to that parent, that you just
(17:10):
cannot imagine going beyond what your parents did. And so
I thought to myself, what an interesting bit of personality
or backstory. It's not even just backstory, it's a piece
of backstory that just becomes an integral part of the character.
But what an interesting character development to give to somebody
as a viewer And reader was seeing it as Anthony
(17:35):
was dodging love because he was afraid to lose love
not so much a little Bertie told me that the
writer's room was kind of weaving it as Anthony didn't
want to feel like he wouldn't want to cause grief
(17:56):
the way his father's passing caused grief for Violet. I
think it's both, yeah, I think it's both. Yeah. But
then after your father died, a wall went up inside you,
as love had become some some weakness instead of your
greatest strength. And that is not you. You deserve the
(18:20):
feeling that I had the moment your father placed that
ring on my finger. It was a promise not just
of the sacred commitment that we were making to one another,
but a sacred lovetill place in You cannot mean that
I seek an amiable partner with whom I may share
a pleasant life, untouched by heartbreak and the ravages of grief.
(18:42):
I TH's a huge weight on my shoulders, Gabby, to
know that I was going to be in charge of
showing Edmund Bridgeton, the father of the family, to show
him alive and to show his death, and to show
the effects of that on both Anthony and Ruth, and
we were blessed to be joined by Rupert Evans as
(19:04):
as Edmund who's just a fantasticly talented actor and indeed
a director on My ADAD. And we had a little
short rehearsal for this, I think a couple of hours
in an afternoon, just to get sense of who he is,
what his relationship was with Ruth, who was such a
warm and generous actor herself, and then his relationship with Antony,
(19:27):
and how much Antony looks up to his dad, so
he tries to copy him. And if you look at
it for a third or all time, you might see
that Johnny is very deliberately copying his father's body language.
And we talked, you know, me and Johnny talked a
lot about what kind of young man is he and
(19:48):
what he's unformed. I mean, Jonathan is enormously lucky himself
to have a young person's face. He looks great. I
hope we remnaged to date him a little bit. But
actually what it was for Anthony, his character, it's a
story of how he was formed, because before that he's
a young boy. He can't to the breakfast, he stuffs
(20:10):
his face, he's making like a sandwich with honey and
bacon in it. I mean, it's just a boy's sandwich. Really.
He goes shooting. He doesn't know how to shoot properly
because he can't concentrate. He can't he hasn't got that
maturity to really control himself in the way that his
father does. So all that time he trying to learn
off his father. Because what happens then to Anthony is
(20:31):
he has to learn how to be someone like his father.
He has to grow up, and he has to grow
up first because he's been peppered with questions about the house.
Quite an incredible scene of being lost amongst those questions.
But of course the biggest, the biggest trial for him
is the birth of his sister. Well, please lie down
(20:54):
still your mind. I will find out what he's asking
for me and return it immediately. He is asking to
decide which one of us should have me or the baby.
You kill the baby, you save the mother, You cut
the mother, you save the child. It is not your
choice to make, it is might it is his lordship's choice.
(21:19):
I mean, it's shot very simply. Any number of technical
difficulties sheeting that nothing to do with the actors. But
you know, it was raining outside and because it was
a very very old building called west Wickham, we couldn't
put rain on the outside of the building, so we
had to project it with with with visual projectors onto
the windows. I mean all crazy, crazy sort of technical
(21:41):
things that we had to get around to give it
that sense of a real elemental birthing moment. You know,
the rain, the lightning, life of some kind was going
to happen or death. And no, I'm very are you
very proud to being polled say it's It's just it's
(22:04):
really heartwrenching, like she's giving birth, she lost her husband.
There's there's it's like a tornado of stuff that's happening.
And I'm wondering where you were mentally when writing about Violet.
How and why did you like make that Violet's experience? Well, Violet,
(22:25):
they became Violet's experience because I had the plot was
developed that way for Anthony's character to create what we
talked about with Anthony about him having lost his dad
so young. And you know, if you set that up,
then Violet has obviously lost her husband. There's a moment
in her birth scene where she's I guess she's breached,
(22:46):
Like I guess the baby is not positioned correctly, and
it's it could be baby or mother kind of a
birth situation. And they're telling Anthony it's up to him
to decide who would survive. That's not in the book.
That's like the meanest thing to do someone. When those
pages landed on our desks, I just think, whoever that
(23:11):
I have the opportunity and the privilege of shooting it,
because again, it speaks of the universality of the childbirth
experience for half our world and the dangers that are
in errand in it, even in the modern or the
privileged parts of the globe, but certainly absolutely a reason
(23:34):
for female mortality throughout the rest of the world. And
that incredible decision and the fact that doctors aren't even
listening to Violet. They need his advice because he's now
Lord Bridgeton. They need his say. So she's saying do
this for you know, Yeah, she screams speak to me,
and I'm just like, oh my goodness, they're talking over
(23:57):
what a intense experience was filming that. I cannot tell you.
I mean, I shot that on my birthday. I just
thought I'm so blown away by this. I don't even
have the energy to speak to my family after this.
You know, I didn't tell you what it's my birthday,
but it was just like, wow, that's that's what a
(24:17):
hell of a birthday present. Because the scene is so tense,
it's so truthful. Again, actors are very generous, you know
they can Ruth can stay in character but be very humane,
and then when the camera's ready to roll, she will
go into this thing, this ferocious mama there saying that
you come, I'm terrified of you. See I'm I'm the
(24:41):
kind of actor that loves something grim, So I really
I love all of that kind of stuff. So I'm
in my I'm in my element. Can you take us
on set with you to those moments me? Ruth, I
have no children, so I've never given birth, and I
needed to be able to feel that that I got
(25:04):
something physically right or was it. I mean, other people
will have a judgment on whether I got it right
or not, but at least that I was in the realm,
the right realm, and I had the amazing penny. They
had a midwife come in and talk to me. Hilarious
thing was it was preparing with Penny. They put us
in a hotel and it was during COVID, so there
was there was nobody in this hotel and we went
(25:26):
into the dining room so it was empty, and I
virtually went through the whole stages of labor with Penny.
And I did think it was funny if anyone came
in and sort of wandered into the dining room while
I was sort of screaming and things like that. But
oh my goodness, so Ruth, you're in this hotel, like, okay,
(25:47):
let's go over with five centimeters. Feels like it feels
like now like it wasn't bit like that. So I
needed to get the physicality right first that I felt
comfortable enough that I could then constant trait on the
words and the scene and the grief. I'm not particularly
a method actor, so I did preparation, but I don't
(26:09):
sort of stay in it, so I'm usually sort of
trying to crack jokes in between or sort of you know,
and that makes me comfortable. That makes me comfortable when
I feel feel supported like that. But the crew were very,
very respectful and lovely. But they are a lovely crew.
How cool though, like that you actually had a midwife
(26:29):
come and go through that with you. I remember you
all have choreographers, like you have Jack Murphy intimacy coordinators.
I didn't even think to ask, did you have a
midwife for someone very experienced and having seven plus children
come and teach you the ways of the birth? Yeah? Yeah,
(26:52):
it was lovely and she was lovely, and it was lovely.
That's amazing. The thing about Violet is that she develops
a lot over the course of eight books, and in
some ways she's become one of my favorite characters because
in many ways I spent more time with her than
any of the other characters, which is ironic because she
never really starts in her own book. So the development
(27:15):
of violence, experience in her grief, and how she thinks
about it actually comes through in all eight books. In
terms of where I was, I will be honest, I
did not know that kind of grief. Then, you know,
with Violet, I think I feel kind of bad. I mean,
she ended up with this horrible, grief stricken story because
I was creating this arc for her son. She just
(27:36):
kind of came, you know, in terms of like me
being the puppet master, she just got pulled along for
the ride. Yeah, but it made for such a deep
and wonderful character. And the other thing I love about Violet,
and this is something that was very purposeful, was I
wanted to have a good mother. I feel like literature
is just overflowing with bad mothers, you know, or or
(28:00):
misunderstood mothers, or mothers who get the blame for everything.
It's just but I was like, you know, let's hear
it for good mothers. Let's give a we want a
good mother out there. Yeah, And so I was like,
I'm going to give the world violent. She's gonna be
the best mother there is. I just love that she
has these glimmers of being this wise person, a champion
(28:21):
for love and then also an agent for her body.
Oh my god, she's standing right there and they're like,
be quiet, a little lady. This young teenage boy has
to figure out what to do, like save a sibling
or save his mother, and she's just like, he doesn't
get to decide. It's my body. I get to decide.
(28:43):
And it's like this this little glimmer of Violet, I
feel like representing women's independence in a way that we
see in the other female characters throughout the show. Absolutely
I'm pretty sure she's the coolest person on the plant
Ana literally. After the break, we'll return with some lighter topics,
(29:04):
including Paul Mall and Anthony's Quest for love. Welcome back.
Let's return to the conversation with director Alex Pille. Were
there any moments during the game that the Bridgetons were
playing with the Sharma's palmal that were like favorite moments
(29:25):
for you? This is a lot of takes, a lot
of different shots you had to catch. How did you
visually tackle that? Luckily we shot at every about two
and a half days or something. And there's some basic
storytelling donalog storytelling that's going to happen, because there's Donald
with Anthony gets the better of Kate, Kate gets the
better of Anthony, with Anthony's trying to show Edwina how
(29:49):
to play, and Edwina fails. So you have all that,
But what the reasons is any Donalo covering the actual
game playing as such? Now, we had some basic rules
that we had discovered or researched a bad how to
play this game, and then we kind of made up
some ourselves, some from the book, but mostly based on
(30:09):
the historic game of Pall Mall and actually was quite
a complex game. And towards the end of the shoot,
I thought, shooting this sequence, I thought, well, we've done
the dialogue. You've done it all brilliantly. We've tried to
show that Edwina has been left out, she leaves, she's deflated,
and yet Daphne's aware that Kate and Anthony Kana playings
(30:32):
real rival. Yes, but I felt there was no free
form play between between the characters. So I think on
the day that we did the kind of the mallet sharing,
whether they dole out the mallets and they were all
there and they fought over them, and very quick fire
dialogue and all that, and Johnny said, cut, Alex, we've
had such fun, and I said, look, it's a Friday, right,
(30:54):
We've got about an hour and a half at the
end of the day. I just want to set it
aside and I want you guys to just play a
game of palm. So you'll just tea off start on
hoop one and we'll get and then Shelley and Ruth
Agile would be watching, and the two children will be
watching from the side, and I just want you to play.
(31:15):
And so the last hour and a half on that Friday,
end of the week. It was a lovely it was
sunshine evening, sunshine coming down, and they just played and
badly or well, I mean so, I'll tell you. Phoebe
was really good. Her ball really went through the hoop
I think once, which is quite a hard thing to do.
(31:36):
And actually Simone was very good as well, and they
just whacked it. Wait were you capturing this on film? Yeah?
You know, wow, so some of that game playing is
in there. You know. We're just trying to give it
all a bit of mood, really, a bit of just
what why why do the fans love pal Math so much?
(31:56):
What is that? You know? Just I think that scene
it could have been anything. It didn't have to be
pal mall, but the interaction of the characters in that
scene I think is so familiar to anybody who ever
had a brother or sister. I joke that the Bridger
Tints have turned croquet into a blood sport. It's just,
you know, they are so snarky with each other, you know,
(32:17):
in that sort of sense of competitiveness you have with
your siblings that you never quite have with anyone else
as much, you know, to the point where it's just
like I don't care if I win. It's just you
have to lose. You know. What is really interesting is
that that scene almost wasn't in the books. What happened was,
you know, I'm writing The Viscount who Loved Me, and
(32:40):
you know, it's it's the Enemies to Lovers trope. And
I got to this point where they had, you know,
reached a point where they liked each other finally, and
I'm looking at it and I'm thinking, I really kind
of thought, this is happening too soon. And and part
of that is that, you know, at that point, I
think that was maybe my tenth romance novel. I had
written you have a certain feel for where things should
(33:03):
be at what point, But it wasn't just that. It's like, okay, well,
if it's happening too soon, it probably means that I
didn't do a good job of showing why they no
longer hate each other. And there's nothing worse than a
romance novel where it's I hate you, I hate you,
I hate you, I hate you. Why can't you tell
that I love you? You know, you need to show,
(33:23):
all right, the readers needs to know why they And
so I'm reading it everyone I'm like, yeah, I haven't
done a good job with that, And so I tried
to think, what is the one thing that could convince
Kate that Anthony's not such a bad guy, And I
think it was seeing him with his family, seeing him
interact with his family, even in this maybe especially in
(33:45):
this crazy snarky way. I mean, but they are ready
to like hit each other over the head. But at
the same time, the love is there, and you can
see nobody could be a bad person who interacts with
his family quite like that. Yes, And so that's why
I ended up adding that scene in. And I've had
(34:05):
so much fun with it. I think it ended up
being like two or three chapters long. I mean, I
it was just pure fun to write, and it ended
up being such a fan favorite. Okay, so that's so okay.
My suspicions were right. It's you get to see siblings
tease each other and be playful, and like you said,
anyone who's got siblings, they know how it is. You
(34:30):
have the chance to best him. Oh no, be very
sportsman life nowadays. I was told on sportsman like conduct
was a requirement for this game fast learning. You are, indeed,
miss Schrauma. These eight siblings are so close, and they
counsel each other, they ate each other, and just seeing
them on a course, I kind of like saw it
(34:52):
as like a course of life kind of a way.
So maybe like a metaphor for the games of courtship
that they're playing in this particular her episode as well,
because we see Violet and Benedict and Colin counseling and
just kind of helping Anthony like figure out what's going
on with his heart. Well, she's got to move them along, really,
isn't She will take forever if she doesn't move them along.
(35:16):
So she wants them to have a marriage full of love,
and she has to keep guiding them. And you could
say that she points them in directions of people that
are unsuitable. But then as far as she's concerned, if
you don't go on a date, you're never going to
bloody know, So you know she's got to keep doing
that kind of right. Lovehood seems just super dutchess very well. Yes,
(35:40):
it does. Our matchmaking efforts last season. We're quite wise
eardied Lady Bridget. Yeah, perhaps we will have such success
again dry if they can somehow stay. Of course, I
think in the books definitely. In the book, she is
(36:00):
all they all talk at some point about how interfering
their mother is. They you know, they kind of bear
exasperated by it, But then as the mother, I think
she's equally exasperated by them. Do you think Violet knew
that Edwina was not the one? It seems like Violet
knew that or felt that. That's quite complicated in a way,
(36:25):
because I think she'd be up for it if she
knew that Anthony was throwing his whole heart and soul
into it, if he was if he had fallen in
love with her, then I think she would support it
no matter what. But I think that I see trouble
ahead if he doesn't give in and if she doesn't
behave any differently, but she will support it, but she
(36:48):
as as it goes on, I think you see what
first of all turns out to be seems to be
Kate just putting a spanner in the worlds and not
agreeing to the marriage, which I think Lady Danbrie tells
me at the at the races later. I think I
think she sees that there is something that where Anthony
has met as much in a way, and she just
(37:09):
needs him to see it, or at least admit it.
In my opinion, Edwina left herself out. She excluded herself,
She removed herself from the game. And I felt like
that should have been a moment where it was very,
very very clear to Anthony maybe I shouldn't propose to
this girl and just follow my heart. But he still
(37:31):
went for it. Is she being overshadowed by Kate, who
can't keep a lid on her own sharp tongue and personality.
Who's a better fit for the Bridgeton family. She's quick witted,
she's physically a debt, she's into competition. Edwina is the
other thing. He said Wayne was very young. You know,
(37:54):
she's eighteen, and in fact, there's a complicated family history.
She was mister Sears child by his first wife. Edwina
is the child from Shelley Conn's character Lady Sharma. Therefore,
there's an age difference between the difference in confidence. And however,
the great thing is that I do know that during
(38:17):
the whole season, Edwin's character grows herself, she grows up,
she becomes more confident. You know, she's in great hands
with Terita Chandran, who is a super clever person at
Oxford University graduate, I might add, and brings you a
real perception to the role to any acting she does,
(38:38):
you know, real understanding and wants to know everything about
the character, so you know, she's not finished by any means.
When I was thinking of this season as being like
seeing the male thinks bride perspective of the marriage market,
I realized that Anthony had unfulfilled wanderlust and that his
brothers are exploring their passions thet he's bound by duty
(39:03):
and all of that good stuff, just like his sisters,
and that his brothers get to see more and do more.
Is that true though, Yeah, in some ways, you know,
I don't know if he's ever been outside the country,
but in terms of having fewer opportunities than his brothers, yes,
in many ways, because he has a responsibility to this,
(39:26):
to the state, because you know, they it's kind of
like oldest takes all in sort of the English aristocracy
or the British aristocracy. It passes down through one line,
and that the idea is let's keep it at these
biggest states intact, you know, and they can give little
bits to the unentailed parts to other siblings whatever but
they really want to keep it intact, whereas and there
are some other countries where things get divided up and
(39:48):
then everything gets you know, much smaller and they lose power.
So this was the idea of this was to keep
the power in the family by keeping everything together. But
what happens is that the oldest you know, yeah, they're
inheriting all the wealth, all the power, but it also
means they're they're really bound to it. In many ways.
It's a huge responsibility. And so you know, there are
(40:12):
cases of you know this in fighting where maybe the
younger people want to inherit or you know, you hurt
all these things, you know, you know, sibling fratricide or whatever,
all these things. But at the same time, I think
there were a lot of younger siblings who are like,
oh my gosh, thank thank heavens, I'm not the oldest.
I mean, they don't get to do anything that they
have to answer to this giant estate. And so it
(40:34):
is kind of this double edged sword where yeah, you
inherit everything, you get the title, you get the money,
you get the big house, but you also get a
huge amount of responsibility and and you can't necessarily just
take off and leave. I mean they looked at that
a little bit in season one with you know, Simon
comes back and they discover, like, you know, some things
have gone bad on his estate because he hasn't been
(40:57):
taken care of it. And the lively hoods of hundreds
and hundreds of people rely on you. So it is
a very very big responsibility and I think he feels
it very keenly. Are there any other themes that you
felt like you got to really explore other than love? Friendship?
(41:18):
It's lovely in season two to have the relationship between
Violet and Lady Danbury's very much a given in season one,
but you see more of them together and how their relationships.
As we all have relationships, they become fractured and sometimes
you forgive your friends easier than you forgive your family.
(41:40):
But you choose your friends rather than your family. So
so that was nice to kind of delve into that
those roles. Really, that's right. You just reminded me there's
a moment the two of you or maybe not at odds,
but maybe you know, and you just start cracking up. Um,
(42:03):
that was a really sweet moment. Yeah, And Adua is lovely.
It's a good it's a good relationship. Yes, tell me
about working with Adua and Joe. Fantastic, Absolutely fantastic. Yeah,
I mean she's a store art of the theater here
and she's cold. You could not pick a lovelier woman.
And yeah, it's so it's nice to explore that. We
(42:25):
have a lot of fun, a lot of fun. Do
you have any other favorite moments from the entire experience
of shooting season two? The people. I think it's the
people that make it so wonderful. They are a really
lovely bunch of people who are very supportive and very talented,
and yeah, yeah, there aren't any egos, which is lovely,
(42:50):
and it's it's a joy to be part of. It's exhausting,
but it's a good exhaustion, you know. So I'm proud
to be part of something that they're all in and
I mean crew as well, and the crew well, fantastic,
really lovely. It's nice to feel, in some my new
(43:13):
way that you're part of it. I think one of
my counterparts at chandaland we were really giddy when we
learned we'd be talking with you, and we were like
talking about all the things we have to go back
and watch and um, so this has just been really,
really awesome speaking with you. Well, it's lovely speaking to
(43:33):
you to thank you so much for joining us again
on this podcast. And yeah, just thank you, thank you,
thank you. This is this is so much fun. This
is as I tell people, this is way more fun
than actually writing a book. Thank you for joining us
(43:53):
on this deep dive into the world of Bridgerton. That's
not all from Julia Quinn and Alex Pillay join us
next week as they returned to breakdown episode two oh
four with even more from behind the scenes. If you're
enjoying this show, please subscribe, share with your friends, rate,
or leave us a review. And if you haven't finished
binging Bridgerton on Netflix, please go do that so you
can enjoy all of the juicy spoilers with us. Bridgerton.
(44:15):
The Official Podcast is executive produced by Sandy Bailey, Lauren Holman,
Tyler Klang, and Gabrielle Collins. Our producer and editor is
Vince to Johnny Bridgerton. The Official Podcast is a production
of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts
from Shondaland Audio, visit the iHeartRadio app or anywhere you
(44:38):
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