Benedict Bridgerton has a bit in common with Prince Harry—or, at least with Prince Harry before he fell in love with Meghan, ditched the official royal role, and moved to California, that is. As the second eldest Bridgerton brother, Benedict is a quintessential "spare," lacking in responsibility and purpose, and aimlessly waiting in the wings.
“Being the spare—as in the sort of Prince Harry thing,” actor Luke Thompson, who plays Benedict, tells T&C over Zoom, “is a really difficult position to be in because it comes with relative freedom in a particularly constricted place. But also, it's very difficult to find yourself when your whole identity is bound by what the family needs you to do, and yet you're not number one, so you're not fully responsible. You can't actually explore that sort of sense of responsibility because you are just in waiting. I think that's very similar.”
As evidenced by his partying this season, Benedict clearly likes to have a good time. And his scenes often offer a bit of comedic relief, and a contrast to both Anthony and Kate’s tempestuous love story, and the exploration of Violet and Anthony's grief over the loss of the family patriarch Edmund. But despite the jokes, Benedict's struggle of not knowing exactly who he is or what he wants out of life, is at the core of his character. With his entrance into the Royal Academy of Arts, he thinks he’s found a place where he can forge an identity apart from his somewhat overbearing family, only to realize his older brother had a hand in his acceptance to the program.
“There's a lovely line of Julia Quinn's in the story—I'm afraid I'll bastardize it slightly—but she writes that Benedict wishes he was a little less of a Bridgerton, and a little more himself,” Thompson says. “And so he's in that process of finding his own world. And then it turns out that it's through Anthony. There's a real poignancy to that, trying to define yourself and trying to extricate yourself from the family unit and then realizing that maybe you are only there because your older brother helped you.”
Given that Bridgerton has already been officially renewed, the show's writers clearly felt comfortable leaving a few storylines unresolved by the end of this season. Yes, there’s a happy ending for Anthony and Kate (it is a romance after all) but as this chapter of the story concludes, Eloise and Penelope's friendship is in shambles and Benedict is rethinking his artistic ambitions.
“What I love about the end of the season, is that in the book, Benedict is extremely private about his art. It suddenly becomes something that really is just for him, that he's a little bit, not necessarily ashamed of, but really does just do for himself. And I remember watching the earlier season and thinking, oh, they're doing something different,” Thompson says.
“But where we end up in season two does sort of prime us for a relationship to his creativity, that's a bit more akin to what it's like in the book, which is that it's something he wanted to explore, has been burnt a bit by it, and now is keeping to himself. Who knows where they'll take it, but that's my sense of it. And I like that idea because it's quite touching to feel like you've tried to explore something, it hasn't gone your way, and then you nurture it quietly. I think that's quite a nice idea.”
Throughout our conversation, Thompson insisted that he doesn’t know the plot of season three just yet, but if the Netflix series continues to at least loosely follow Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton books, and feature a different love story in each season, Benedict could take center stage as the romantic lead in the show’s next chapter. And this season has already started to hint at how Benedict feels about love. Viewers see him sleep with a model from his figure drawing class and flirt with the modiste, Genevieve Delacroix, with whom he had a dalliance in season one. We also hear him speak on his philosophy of love by way of of a poem he shares with Anthony.
"Poetry is the art of revealing precious truth with words," Benedict says, before launching into his own verse:
"What is it truly to admire a woman? To look at her and feel inspiration? To delight in her beauty so much so that all your defenses crumble, that you would willingly take on any pain, any burden for her. To honor her being with your deeds and words—that is what the true poet describes.”
This exchange between brothers, Thompson says, offers a “glimpse” of a side of Benedict’s personality we have yet to see fully explored on the show. “There's a mystery to him. And I think he's probably also a bit of a mystery to himself, but you get a little glimpse of something quite romantic,” he says.
“Benedict seems to be very much a character who takes it as it comes and is very open, but then to have that sense of something pure and romantic is quite... it is a bit of a surprise and a nice one.”
Thompson has read the third book in the Bridgerton series, An Offer From a Gentleman, so he knows where Julia Quinn takes his character, but is quick to point out that the show is different from the books. "I read the Benedict book to get an idea. They're taking Julia Quinn's idea and a lot of the stuff in the novels, but they're also doing their own thing."
Much of the conversation online about Benedict in season one focused on whether he might be gay or bisexual, and if in addition to Bridgerton changing the races of some characters, the show might change genders of some love interests as well. While there’s certainly a debate to be had over whether the first trailer of Bridgerton featured a bit of queerbaiting, thus far the series never explicitly suggests that Benedict isn’t straight, only a member of an artistic community, and friends with at least one queer person. Up to this point on screen, and in the books the show is based on, all of Benedict's romantic and sexual partners are women.
When asked about the fan conversation regarding Benedict's sexuality, Thompson shared that there is an “openness” to Benedict's personality, but that it's ultimately up to the writers to decide his character's love story.
“Benedict is clearly a very open character and that's extremely fun to play. And I think that it's not narrowly sexual... he's just a very open person, full stop,” he says. “I tend to think that's a question for the writers really, because in order to be playing a character, I sort of have to surrender that side of my brain. The writers are like God, as in I just have to play with what they give me. I think there is that openness, which is really lovely to play with, but in terms of where it goes, I don't know.”
Fortunately, Thompson won’t have to wait too long to find out what's next for Benedict. He's heading back to set to start filming season three “hopefully in the next few months.”
“I can't wait to get back to it. ”
As the digital director for Town & Country, Caroline Hallemann covers culture, entertainment, and a range of other subjects
