Lounge Talk: Luke Thompson

Congratulations on the new season of Bridgerton. I had the chance to watch all the episodes.

The whole thing?!

Yes, yes. Netflix gave me a very special access. (laughing)

Amazing!

I’ve seen it all, but I won’t be giving out any spoilers. If you’re going to spill any tea, this will be on you. (laughing)

I’m well-trained. (laughing)

How excited are you about the new series?

It’s great. I’m so excited about it because, having watched the eight episodes of the show, the new season is absolutely Bridgerton. It’s absolutely what we know Bridgerton is. It’s in that same universe. But it’s also so different because, obviously, there’s a new lead.I think a great thing about the series is that there’s this sort of a conveyer belt of people coming to the floor. It means that each season has a completely different flavour. This one is exactly like that. You have a whole new family coming to the floor, The Sharmas. You’ll also get to know a lot more about the Bridgertons, as you know. And it’s nice to be in something where you feel there’s no comparison.

There can be no comparison as this does feel different to the first series because it has a different energy and focuses on a different character. It’s really exciting to see how people are going to react to that and sort of key into it.

Social media is already buzzing about the new season.

I’m not on social media, but I do have a little peek from time to time. (smiling)

Speaking of it, I’ve seen that there are quite a few Luke Thompson fan pages on Instagram.

I know, I know. And they’re all in different languages.

Does it feel weird, or is the attention becoming normality? 

It doesn’t feel normal, but it’s lovely. I say this often, but fundamentally, as an actor, you want to live in people’s imaginations. That’s the job, right? It’s also particularly lovely because I think all the pages are international. It’s so nice to go on all these different fan groups—in Spanish, French, and Portuguese. I love it. Even though I’m not actually on social media, occasionally, I’ll have a little look. (smiling)

To be honest, when the first season came out, that was the only way of gauging how people were reacting to the show because we were all locked down. Social media gave us access to how the show was being received and whether people were enjoying it.

I think we’ve all seen the cultural impact that Bridgerton has made. In fashion, Regency Era inspired attire is on the rise. There was also a TikTok musical which you’ve probably heard of. The entertainment industry seems to be very much incited by the series as well. Last week, an American friend of mine shared a social media post about a Bridgerton-inspired dating show. I believe it’s called The Courtship.  

Where they dress up in Regency? 

Yes, that’s the one!  

I haven’t seen it, but I’ve heard about it!

The creators of the show did confirm that they took inspiration from the series.

I think the real power of Bridgerton is that it really brings that world of Regency, which can feel a little bit polite, a little bit prudish, and a little bit formal, right to us. Even if it’s reimagined. I think it’s very easy to look at history and think, ‘Oh, you know, everything was different back then. We can’t possibly identify. We can’t possibly understand what it was like.‘ Well, they were all human. They were all still falling in love. They had family problems. To sort of feel that the world of Bridgerton bridges the gap between us and something a bit more traditional or nostalgic is really great.

Making a slight detour to the past, how did the script land in your hands in the first place?

As with a lot of acting projects, you get sent an audition tape. I didn’t have any sense of what it was going to be. Any of that. I got sent two scenes, and they were the two scenes on the swing with Eloise (Claudia Jessie). I just loved the way that the relationship was written. I knew that it was a period drama. And I knew it was Regency, but it felt like a modern brother and sister talking to each other in the way they would relate to each other. I thought that was fun and exciting.

I did a tape and sent it in. A little bit later, I went in to read for another part. I’ve met no one. That was the thing that was so strange to me. I thought for a big project like this, there’d be loads and loads of recalls, and the process would take ages. I did that one tape, and then I’ve waited. Well, I didn’t wait. I almost forgot about it. About a month later, my agent said I had gotten an offer to play Benedict. I’ve asked him,‘Sorry, what do you mean Benedict?‘ (laughing)

I think it’s a testament to the casting and producing team, and I don’t think it’s got anything to do with my acting skills. They know exactly what they want. They always did. And it’s because they’ve got such a distinguished pedigree as a producing company. They just knew what they wanted, and I happened to be right for it. And that was that. It wasn’t a long process or anything. I think a lot of people on the show had a similar experience where they sent in one tape and got a sudden response of ‘We’d like you to do it‘, and you think ‘What?!’

You probably didn’t know that the team was casting all of you guys for the long run?

That’s right. I had no clue. I mean, all jobs are a bit of a gamble, really. A lot of people asked whether we knew that the show was going to be a success. Partly, no, because you never do know how people are going to react. But actually, there was just something about the way that Shondaland worked. You just know you’re in safe hands. You know that they’re master producers and writers. I don’t think I knew about the long run, but, in retrospect, I do sort of look back and think that they knew exactly what they wanted.

That’s the other thing. You look at the show, and you think, ‘God, it spins quite a lot of plates.‘ It’s a bit of a period drama, but it’s also based on Julia Quinn’s novels. It’s also trying to be self-consciously a bit more modern. There are all these different elements. I remember filming season one and thinking, ‘how is this all going to fit together?‘ I think the magic of watching the first series for me was the moment when Daphne and Anthony came to the ball together, and there was Ariana Grande playing in the background on a string quartet. And I just thought, ‘Wow, it all comes together, it fits together as one thing.’ Before, we didn’t really know what the Bridgerton world was like. And now suddenly, going into series two, you know the rules of this world. And it makes sense. It’s its own thing.

In season two, we’ll see more of your character, Benedict. How did it feel to return to playing him? I believe that it’s such a privilege when you have a chance to revisit your character and explore the changes that he’s undergoing together with the audience, whether on stage or screen.

Totally! He’s so fun to play. At the moment, he’s sort of not quite at the forefront, so there’s a lot of mystery about him. There’s a lot we don’t know, and I feel that there’s a lot he doesn’t know about himself either. That’s super fun to play because acting generally is a game of what do you hide and what do you reveal. I think Benedict’s such a perfect version of that because he’s got this front, which is relaxed and playful, but then there’s this other side that we’re just slowly starting to see. It’s really exciting to open up a bit more. Maybe with the knowledge that as the show carries on, we’ll find out more and more… (pausing) It’s really satisfying.

In season one, Benedict was led into that demi-monde world by that artist, but this season will be about him trying to find a little more for himself. And also, finding out what it actually means to be creative and facing the struggle of that. I can identify with this. As an actor, you could spend a lot of time either thinking ‘I’m the worst actor in the world, why would anyone ever employ me?‘ and then going, ‘Oh, actually, I’m fantastic.‘ (laughing)

Being creative means that you have to put both of those things aside. You do not have to compare yourself. You have to try and work on what you’ve got. I think the problem with Benedict is exactly that. He’s so high on himself for a while, thinking that he’s the best, and then, obviously, it’s such a turning point. I have to be careful now because of the spoilers. (laughing) I think this season for him is about that difficulty of trying to find himself within this family that he’s a part of and that he loves very much, but also that he doesn’t quite know where he fits outside as a separate person.