Simone Ashley Reveals What Jonathan Bailey Was Really Like On ‘Bridgerton’ S2 Set

Actress Simone Ashley is opening up about working with Jonathan Bailey in season 2 of the Netflix hit “Bridgerton.”

The second season focused on the love match between Viscount Anthony Bridgerton (Bailey) and Kate Sharma (Ashley). However, things get pretty complicated when Anthony announces his intentions to marry her younger sister, Edwina, the diamond of the season.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Ashley explained what it was like to film those intimate scenes that “Bridgerton” has become known for.

Although their characters had a not-so-great start to their relationship on-screen, the same can’t be said of the actors, who get along great in real life.

If there's a blooper reel consisting of all the times Jonny and I cracked up, I think it would be very adored,” Simone revealed. “We were laughing every day.”

“But there was a scene when we were filming the hunt scene where we're both holding the gun,” she explained. “It's a very intimate moment. It's a long silence, and he's breathing down her ear and she's holding this gun. It's incredibly romantic and sexy. And one of our stomachs made this really funny noise, and the whole moment was lost and we just burst out laughing.”

She also talked about how difficult it was to “not being able to kiss and coming so close to it.”

“We actually were firmly directed like, ‘Too much!’ or ‘You're not allowed to kiss, so this isn't gonna happen. Not yet. Not yet,’” she revealed. “Some of the moments were so explosive that we needed that firm direction of, ‘Don't go there just yet. We're only in episode 3. So, hold back.’”

Ashley said that the argument between Kate and Anthony “before they get it on” at the end of episode 7 was the hardest to film “just because of filming logistics.”

“It was a night shoot. And it was freezing outside,” she explained. “It was a very heated scene that we wanted to get right. We got there and we achieved it. Working with Jonny on the scenes, we always bring it and we always get there. But that was challenging just in terms of the filming logistics of it all.”

Although she and Jonathan had fewer intimate scenes than Daphne and Simone in season 1, Ashley said that she “didn’t really think anything of it.”

“I love the fact that it's a slow burner, and that we earn those incredible fireworks and romantic moments between Kate and Anthony towards the end,” she said. “But we got drip-fed the scripts, so we didn't get all eight of them as we started filming. It was every few months we would get a new episode.”

“Me and Jonny were both like, when's it going to happen? Is it going to happen in this one? When's it going to happen? And then when we finally read it, we were like, ‘Ohhhhh, [this] is really cool,’” she added.

She also dished about the scene where she and Anthony get stuck in the mud together, revealing that they had four different copies of the dress to pull off the scene. Although she was daunted by ruining the dress with mud, she soon got used to it.

“After one day and many takes, you lose the novelty of sitting in the mud and getting dirty and stuff,” she said. “I just got really used to it and got used to wearing this amazing embroidered dress covered in mud.”

When asked how she felt about Kate being the obstacle between Edwina and Anthony’s relationship, Ashley said “I didn’t see it in that way” and said that showrunner Chris Van Dusen didn’t either.

“Chris would say it's obvious that it's Kate and Anthony's — Kanthony's — romance from the get-go,” she explained. “I wouldn't say that it was anything of an obstacle. We're just exploring the sisterly love and the love between Kate and Anthony.”

“And then this amazing relationship between Edwina and Anthony, of these two people, as Anthony says in episode 6, who are incredibly similar to one another, who have these duties as the diamond and as the Viscount,” she continued. “I never really see Kate as an obstacle. There's just something about her with Anthony. If anything, they're like magnets that just slowly come together as the series goes on.”