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Bridgerton season four has cast its Sophie Beckett -- or, in this case, Sophie Baek.
Netflix announced on Wednesday that Yerin Ha (Halo, Dune: Prophecy) would be portraying Benedict Bridgerton's (Luke Thompson) love interest in the upcoming season of the hit series, which will focus on the second-eldest brother's love story.
In the Julia Quinn novels, Sophie's last name is Beckett, but for the television adaptation, showrunner Jess Brownell worked with star Ha to come up with a Korean surname for the character out of respect for Ha's culture. (She is Korean and from Australia.)
"A name is the first bit of identity that you share with the world, and that's why changing a name can be so powerful," Ha told Netflix's Tudum. "To make Sophie's name fit someone who looks like me is really empowering. All credit to Jess."
The showrunner asked Ha to share some Korean last names with her that begin with a B and settled on Baek. "It's a really nice way for me to feel like the role is fit for me, rather than me having to fit a certain mold," the actress explained. "It's amazing what it can do just in a psychological sense. So it means a lot that Jess did that for me."
According to Tudum, Sophie, who is originally known to Benedict as the Lady in Silver, is a victim of tragic events that have forced her to work most of her life under the most demanding employer in the 'Ton. But her circumstances drastically change when she disguises herself to attend Violet Bridgerton's (Ruth Gemmell) masquerade ball, where guests are encouraged to transform into whomever they want, and meets Benedict.
"What drew me to Sophie was that she immediately has obstacles -- something that she constantly has to overcome," she told Tudum after a busy day of Bridgerton rehearsals. "Whether it's this battle around social status or trying to hide her feelings from Benedict."
Ha and Thompson have already begun rehearsing their dance scenes. The actor joked he's only stepped on his co-star's toes once so far, which is good. Ha said that the lessons have been "really special" and "very vulnerable" because dancing is like an "extension of their emotions" and how they connect.
Coming into a show, where the cast has known each other for years, was understandably "nerve-racking" for Ha, but then she started to get to know her co-stars, who welcomed her with open arms. Claudia Jessie, who portrays Eloise Bridgerton, made her a crocheted bookmark. Nicola Coughlan and Hannah Dodd, the actresses behind Penelope and Francesca Bridgerton, respectively, contacted her before even meeting her and told her she could reach out to them if she needed anything.
"For someone just coming into the show, that means so much," Ha said. "It's so sweet. I feel so fortunate and grateful to be part of such a family."
In a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter tied to Bridgerton season three, showrunner Brownell teased what was to come for Benedict as the series continues.
"I think we're going to continue on the storyline of Benedict learning exactly how he wants to exist in the world," Brownell said. "There's a moment towards the end of the season where Benedict is talking to [Lady] Tilley [Arnold] about how he doesn't want anything serious, and Tilley, in a very powerful way, says to him, 'That's OK, but it was really nice to want something for once.' And there's a look on Benedict's face that I think Luke Thompson delivers really beautifully, where you can tell that that hits him in a deep way."
She continued, "I think Benedict is someone who experiences a lot of breadths in his life in terms of a million different experiences, but he's never really committed to anything. I think what he's starting to realize is that he also craves depth, and so Benedict reconciling breadth with depth is something we're going to dive into pretty deeply in future seasons."
