Whoops! Anthony Bridgerton [Jonathan Bailey] may be the most desirable in the marriage mart, but the 33-year-old actor isn’t always as smooth as his on-screen character.
It turns out, the star actually had quite the “embarrassing” wardrobe malfunction while doing a fencing scene — and it was all caught on camera.
“Obviously the costumes were incredible across the board and as men we didn’t have to worry about restricted clothing like the women in their corsets. However, the fencing outfits were quite tight in various places,” he joked during a press event earlier this week. “On the day of the fencing sequence, we were wearing plimsolls on grass and it was a very dewy morning.”
After setting the scene, Bailey revealed that as he lunged toward Benedict Bridgerton [Luke Thompson], his “crotch ripped.” He added: “There was that moment when I suddenly realized I was being filmed by four different cameras and sort of screamed … it was just so embarrassing.”
Bailey isn’t the only main character to run into a problem with wardrobe. Breakout star Simone Ashley, who plays Kate Sharma in season two, actually tore her shoulder from the constraints of her corset.
“I had a lot of pain with the corset,” she told Glamour UK. In addition to learning that she needed a wardrobe team on standby in order to simply tie her shoes (she couldn’t bend down!), the 26-year-old star also had to make some alterations to her diet.
“On my first day, I was like, ‘Ok, first day as a leading lady, got to eat lots of food, be really energized. So I had this massive portion of salmon and that’s when I needed to be sick, basically because I was wearing the corset,” she revealed. “I realized when you wear the corset, you just don’t eat. It changes your body.”
While the tight pants and corsets may not be the most comfortable attire for the actors and actresses, it was key to merging the historic reality with the Bridgerton fantasy.
Combining Regency-era style with an over-the-top feel was a technique also employed by makeup artist Erika Ökvist. “The Bridgerton beauty style is basically taking a Regency look that we love and then heightening the reality — using editorial means to translate the Regency look,” Ökvist explained.
To achieve such an end, she relied on a lineup of Pat McGrath products (namely the MTHRSHP eyeshadow palettes) to take characters from light and fresh looks to more dramatic vibes that packed an extra punch.
