It has come to our attention that the LGBTQIA+ community is finally getting the steamy gay couple it deserves in Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story.
Fans of the Bridgerton-verse, rejoice! The Netflix and Shondaland series has delivered a steamy queer romance between a young Brimsley and the King’s butler, Reynolds. Not only is their love story full of forbidden touches and yearning glances, but it also has quite a few raunchy moments.
In Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, fans of the series will be taken back in time to when Charlotte came to rule over England beside her husband, King George III. The prequel dives into their turbulent relationship and how their reign transformed the Ton forever.
We sat down with Sam Clemmett and Freddie Dennis to chat about bringing this beautiful story to the beloved Regency series and the making of those highly anticipated steamy scenes.
Bridgerton Continues to Bring Representation to Regency
The television adaptation of Julia Quinn’s classic stories has been refreshingly diverse since day one. However, after season one introduced a minor queer character who later disappeared altogether, LGBTQ+ fans have been waiting for some much-needed gay romance. And Queen Charlotte is delivering!
“We are both incredibly proud to be bringing the first LGBTQ+ storyline to the Bridgerton universe,” Dennis told editor Caitlynn McDaniel. “It’s so important that people feel represented by what they see in film and television and Bridgerton is famously inclusive and diverse. It’s been such a privilege and I am so proud.”
“And it’s so important that be it a period show, be it a contemporary show, that any story that’s now told in any medium, it reflects the society in which we live, that people can see themselves within these characters,” Clemmett added. “And this show so beautifully deals with so many universal themes that we all deal with on a day-to-day basis. Shonda’s created such rich, complex characters, and we get to tell a couple of their stories in amongst this other brilliant cast. It’s a really, really proud moment for me and for Fred and for everyone in this cast, I think.”
We first meet Brimsley (Hugh Sachs) in season one as the right hand man to Golda Rosheuvel’s Queen Charlotte. Not much is known about his character outside of his relationship with his Queen. In the new season, we dive deeper into their bond and how he came to serve Charlotte. Clemmett said it was a team effort between him, Rhimes, India Amarteifio, and the director Tom Verica.
Add a Little Spice
Besides gorgeous costumes, hot men, and orchestral pop covers, the Bridgerton series is also known for its spicy love scenes between the leading cast. For Brimsley and Reynolds, it was no different. So how did the two actors prepare for their intimate scenes?
“I think any intimate scene is intimidating because it requires a vulnerability from the actor and that’s to do with many things,” said Dennis. “But one of it is kind of the nudity that’s involved being in a room filled with lots of people is an intimidating thing. But actually, I was nervous, but we were incredibly well looked after by our brilliant intimacy coordinators, Lizzy Talbot and Lucy Fennell, and then our amazing director, Tom Verica, was also very, very kind and very sensitive. And I felt like we had such a voice in that room. I felt so safe.”
It also helps when you have a great scene partner, which was the case for these two.
“He’s brilliant,” he said of Clemmett. “And we had such a good rapport and we’re such good friends that it was actually very easy and a joy.”
Clemmett echoed his costars’ sentiment, and praised their intimacy coordinators once more.
“Doing them seemed so much easier. You sort of forgot about what was going on, and you could just throw ourselves into the work and tell the story and play the scene out as was needed.”
The next season of Bridgerton will follow the third eldest son Colin and his love interest, Penelope Featherington. For now, you can watch the first two seasons and the newly released prequel on Netflix.
