This article contains spoilers for the second season of Bridgerton.
Bridgerton star Jonathan Bailey has shared his take on the distinct lack of sex scenes in the show’s second season.
When the Netflix period drama debuted in December 2020, it immediately gained a reputation for its racy content.
However, viewers watching the second season have picked up on the fact there’s noticeably less sex this time around, with its central couple not getting down to it until the penultimate instalment.
Jonathan – who takes the lead as Anthony Bridgerton in the new batch of episodes – has now defended this decision.
Speaking to USA Today, he insisted: “What you lose in sex scenes you gain in a deeper human understanding, which hopefully enriches the world so that the future intimacy scenes won’t be the heavy feature, and (you) won’t have to lean on them as much.
“It’s right to surprise an audience and keep them on their toes a bit.”
Jonathan added: “It would have been wrong for Kate and Anthony to have got physical any sooner than they did – and I think the payoff is really earned.”
Bridgerton creator Chris Van Dusen previously insisted: “We’ve never done a sex scene for the sake of doing a sex scene and I don’t think we ever will.
“It all serves a larger purpose and it’s a different story this season. Different characters, where we’re with Anthony and Kate most of the season and that’s very different from Daphne and Simon.”
Jonathan did recently tease what it was like to film the sex scenes that did make it into the season, revealing how one unlikely prop was used to make the moment convincing.
Both seasons of Bridgerton are now available to stream on Netflix.