Painting the ton red!

THE TON IS BUZZING WITH GOSSIP AGAIN. THE CURRENT CAST OF THE LATEST SEASON OF BRIDGERTON CHATS WITH SRIJANI ROY CHOWDHURY

- SRIJANI ROY CHOWDHURY

The ton is abuzz with rumours. And this time, it is not just Lady Whistledown spilling the tea. It is the cast. Season 4 of Netflix's Bridgerton is waltzing in with longing looks and existential crises in corsets. The cast shares details about aggressively romantic kite-flying and one man's desire to legally change his name to Colin “My Wife” Bridgerton if the Parliament allows it. Benedict is staring down the barrel of adulthood, Eloise remains the patron saint of Gen Z rebellion, Francesca is navigating marriage with soft-spoken steel and somewhere in the English countryside, two very attractive people are bonding over emotional growth and wind direction. We sat down with Luke Thompson, Yerin Ha, Claudia Jessie, Luke Newton and Hannah Dodd to discuss duty versus desire and breaking into the Bridger-verse friend circle. Reader, tighten your seatbelts and get ready for some fan frenzy, as we ask...

Benedict often struggles between freedom, his own independence and maintaining his duty as one of the Bridgerton brothers. Does the new season tip that balance in one direction?

Luke Thompson: Yes, that is a really good way of putting it. That's exactly what happens. It is interesting. He has seen his circumstances exactly that way. He has always seen it as duty. He has seen it as a negative thing. It has been a burden for him all his life. He has always tried to dodge or steer clear of it. The venture that he goes on this season is about slowly realising that there is a huge value, meaning and excitement to fulfilling some sort of duty. It is not really a duty but some sort of commitment. It is about taking something seriously and facing life down the barrel a little bit. You cannot try to pretend that you can live forever.

Did you receive any advice from Jonathan Bailey and Luke Newton? They had the opportunity to play the leads before you...