Julia Quinn Interview About Bridgerton Season 2 - Town & Country
Major spoilers ahead for Bridgerton season two. If you haven't watched, turn back now.
When I call up Julia Quinn in early March, I had just finished watching season two of Bridgerton. I was bursting to talk to someone about all the swoon-worthy moments in Anthony and Kate's romance, the fall-out between Penelope and Eloise, and Kate and Edwina's sisterhood.
We won't spoil anyone, I promise to the romance author at the start of our call, this interview will go up after the premiere.
"I'm trusting you," Quinn tells me with a laugh. "I will get in so much trouble." Over the course of our chat, we talk about everything—from her favorite characters to write to the biggest differences between The Viscount Who Loved Me and the hit Netflix show to the joy of a happy ending.
Here, Quinn tells Town & Country about all her feelings on Bridgerton season two, from the pall mall scene to the early reveal of Lady Whistledown.
On the biggest surprise after season one:
The way in which the show and the whole world entered the cultural zeitgeist. The fact that suddenly there'd be a cartoon in the New Yorker that referenced Bridgerton—or Stephen Colbert would mention it. It got spoofed on SNL, which was just mind blowing. Even the NFL! The NFL made a video narrated by "Lady Whistleblown" for the NFL draft. All my knowledge of the NFL draft comes from reading football romance. The players in the draft were treated like debutantes in this video. Just the fact that suddenly Bridgerton is in the popular culture to the degree that even people who haven't seen it kind of know what it is. The ubiquitousness of it was really crazy and wonderful.
It was fabulous, just like season one was fabulous. It's just pure joy. Part of the reason [Bridgerton] is so popular is because the show is basically about joy and happiness in the end.
One thing I really loved about this season is the beautiful family moments. Part of the reason people love Bridgerton—I mean they're there for the romance, don't get me wrong—but I think people love seeing this imperfect and yet really quite functional family. It's saying, you can still be perfect and not be dysfunctional. The scenes where we actually see that were wonderful.
I loved, loved the scene between Anthony and Gregory, and the scene where they're just dancing as family. And [Anthony's] like, Hyacinth! I loved when Kate and Edwina danced—so sweet. I love how much the season celebrated family.
On the Sheffield sisters becoming the Sharma sisters:
It was beautiful the way they incorporated Indian culture. The season's not about Indian culture, it's not about the colonial relationship between England and India, but you get tastes of it sprinkled in this seamless way. It gives depth to these characters without being overwhelming.
On her behind the scenes involvement:
I did get to go to the set just for one day. It happened to be one of the days they were filming at Hampton Court Palace, which of course was amazing. And Netflix arranged for me to have a private tour of the palace, which was very cool. It was [the scene in episode 6 at] the big party where they're all outside. So, I saw a very small part of all the people interacting.
I am very hands off. My attitude is that the people at Shondaland are incredibly smart and they know what they're doing and I'm gonna let them work their magic.
One of the few things where I have made my opinion well known was that scene had to be in there. I basically said this needs to be there, and they're like, oh yeah, we're on it. It was not a fight. I didn't need it to be exact, I needed the spirit of it to be there, and it absolutely was. And then I loved that it showed up again at the ending, I think it was perfect.
On the portrayal of Kate:
There's only so much you can include. They went with some different motivational things for Kate and I think that worked really well. They kept the part that was the most important: Her incredible love and devotion to her family. And her selflessness because of that. And, the fact that she's very selfless about [her family], but to the point of being somewhat delusional [about] her own wants and desires.
When Anthony says he loves her, it was absolutely perfect the way it was done. And then there's one point where he's like, "and you probably won't even allow it," it was just this total nod to her personality. I just thought it was so well done.
On turning Anthony and Kate's romance into a love triangle with Edwina:
Somebody could teach a masterclass on how to adapt a book to television, or film, from what they're doing. In both season one and season two, there's very little that is word for word, or even scene for scene coming from the books. And yet, the characters are absolutely 100% true to who they are in the books. The overall conflict and story remains the same, with some additions and deletions, but they've changed it enough so that book readers can have a new experience—which I think is fabulous.
When I poke around online, spying on the internet, I see about half the people say, oh, the books are better, and half the people say, oh, the show is better. I think that's fabulous; it means that they complement each other really well. You could have two experiences and love them both. Some people are like, "Oh, don't you want everybody to say, the book is better?" And I say, "No, I want a great show! Are you kidding me?" I love that it's even.
On revealing Lady Whistledown's identity so early:
Originally they had ended season one with a red herring. At some point somebody was like, "Anybody could just google who Lady Whistledown is." There's just no way that the television show could have kept it a secret once it dropped. They made the right decision to do that.
Once they're like, it has to be this way because we can never keep it a secret, then they explored it beautifully. They said, "Okay, well, we have to do it this way. What can we turn this into?" And what it means is you can turn it into this great thing where the viewers are in on a secret that the characters don't know—suddenly you're looking at every scene differently. It's terrific.
On the character she loves to write:
The character I love writing the most is Lady Danbury, because she just has no more anythings left to give. And she just says whatever the heck she wants, and I love her. I absolutely adore her.
I almost was almost gonna kill her off in the books, because in the books, she's actually quite a bit older than in the series. And I'm so glad I didn't. Now I'm convinced she will never die in the books. I promise you. I don't know how old she's going to be—she's gonna be like the oldest living human being in Regency world, because she's just so much fun.
On the actor she loves to watch:
That is challenging. I love Golda Rosheuvel playing Queen Charlotte. I mean, when the thing she does with her face when she's reading Whistledown. Is her face made out of like putty or something? She just like moves her lips in these ways... She's magnificent.
On characters that appear in the TV show that she never wrote:
It's a big world! Just because I didn't write about them, doesn't mean they wouldn't be there. I have no problem with that at all. The more the merrier!
On the structure of romance series:
There were so many viewers who were either upset or perplexed by Regé-Jean Page leaving. I think they'll understand the structure of a romance series. With romance novel series, they're not sequels so much as a collection of spinoffs.
Interestingly enough, before the show came out, when it was first announced, we had the inverse issue. The book readers, when they heard that it was gonna be Shonda Rhimes and Shondaland doing this, were terrified that she was gonna take this romance novel structure and turn it into something like Grey's Anatomy. They're like, "oh my gosh, is she going kill everybody off? Keep switching partners?" And I was [reassuring], "no, no, Shonda knows what a romance novel is and what a romance novel series is."
Now, we have the opposite where people who are used to a more traditional television series, which follows the same characters and keeps torturing them in new and different ways—now we have to introduce them to how a romance novel series is structured, where you get a new love story every book, or season, within the same world. So you're gonna have different characters rise to the fore each season as the leads, which I'm very excited for viewers who may not be familiar with how romance novel series are structured to see that. And to suddenly realize, this is really cool. We get to go back to the same world, and we get something really new.
I mean, I'm not telling anybody to start Bridgeton at season two, but if you did happen to start at season two, I don't think you'd be lost.
On what she hopes readers take away from Bridgerton:
The joy of the happy ending. I want readers to be smiling and happy. At the same time, I do try to weave in some more serious themes, but do it with a light touch. One thing that's in the book that isn't really explored in the TV show is Anthony's fear of dying young. That was a big thing in the book, and that was actually modeled on somebody in real life, who I knew had that experience with having had his father die really quite young. I hope that maybe the books can explore the human condition in a way that is still very, very entertaining and gives you that rush of love and romance.
I don't know! This isn't me being coy. I know very little about what's coming next. I believe they're in the writer's room working it all out, so I don't even think they know for sure.
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Julia Quinn Interview About Bridgerton Season 2 - Town & Country
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