Netflix has just announced the next leading actress for “Bridgerton”: Korean-Australian actress Yerin Ha.
Ha, 29, known for her work in “Halo” and “Dune: Prophecy,” will play Sophie Baek, the lover of Benedict Bridgerton (Luke Thompson), in season 4 of the hit historical series.
Unlike the high society love stories that came before her, Sophie is a maid who has spent most of her life working and hiding a mysterious past, as Netflix revealed on companion site Tudum. She meets Benedict while going undercover at the Bridgertons’ masquerade ball.
“What attracted me to Sophie was that she immediately encounters obstacles – something she constantly has to overcome,” Ha told Tudum. “Whether it’s this struggle for social status or trying to hide her feelings from Benedict.”
The character in the original Bridgerton books was named Sophie Beckett, but the showrunners changed her last name as a nod to Ha’s Korean heritage.
“For me, it’s a really nice way to feel like the role is for me, rather than me having to fit a certain mold,” she said. “It’s amazing what that can do just psychologically.”
Ha was involved in choosing the last name, Netflix said in the post, and settled on Baek after thinking about Korean last names that begin with “B.”
“A name is the first piece of identity you share with the world, and that’s why a name change can have such an impact,” she said.
Benedict is the youngest scion of the noble Bridgeton family, whose love story is dedicated to an entire season.
The previous three seasons focused on Benedict’s siblings Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor), Colin (Luke Newton) and Anthony (Jonathan Bailey), who also had an Asian lover in the second season: the iconic Kate Sharma, played by Simone Ashley.
“It wasn’t until I saw the monitors and the footage of me and Charithra (Chandran, who played Edwina) on the screen and there were two dark-skinned Indian women, two Tamil women on the screen,” Ashley told NBC News in 2022. “That’s when I thought, ‘Wow, this is happening.'”
While many fans celebrated the portrayal, others said the show did not do thorough research when constructing the characters’ race. For example, Ashley seemed to switch between a British and Indian accent and her surname Sharma did not fit with the character’s South Indian roots.
Some critics at the time also said that the references to British colonialism were immature.
“I think it’s flattened out a lot,” said Harleen Singh, associate professor of women’s studies and South Asian history at Brandeis University.
Ha will be the second Asian love interest in the series, and after Ashley’s season broke Netflix’s weekly streaming records, fans are saying in the comments that they are more than excited. But they will have to wait, as no release date has been set for the season 4 premiere.
“I feel so lucky and grateful to be part of such a family,” Ha said.
