Jonathan Bailey Reveals Which 'Bridgerton' Scene He Expected Fans To Obsess Over

Actor Jonathan Bailey is coming off the second season of “Bridgerton.”

The popular Netflix period drama has caused a stir among fans due to the intensely romantic scenes between the character. Bailey, who portrays Viscount Anthony Bridgerton, revealed that acting in the second season has its challenges in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly.

In the show’s first season, “I burn for you” was considered the hottest bit of dialogue. In season 2, Bailey was sure that it was going to be “You vex me.” However, he was shocked to find that fans have become more enamored with, “You are the bane of my existence and … the object of all my desires.”

“We thought that ‘You vex me’ would become a thing, actually,” he revealed. “Sometimes you hear a catchphrase. I thought it would be ‘Newton!’” Newton is the name of Kate’s (Simone Ashley) troublesome pet Corgi.

“The only problem with being in the second season of something like Bridgerton is you begin to think that you can hear the soundbites,” he explained. “It's so weird because in series one we didn't understand the aesthetic of the show. We hadn't seen it in its full glory, but suddenly, now, you see the person you're playing opposite as if they're actually on the screen. It was all a bit weird.”

Jonathan Bailey said that Anthony was an “always really appealing and complicated character. He's obsessed with Kate, and he is obsessed with her because she is the end point for his life. She just completely tapped into all of his barriers, emotional barriers, his insecurities. Everything was wrapped up in the past.”

“I just know that when you're working opposite someone like Simone, the gateway to the soul is the eyes,” he continued. “For Anthony, I know what sort of guy he is. For him, it's about eyes, lips, smell. Keeping it in an animal realm was always the key. And he's got a lot to understand. He's deeply curious. So I think that's where the looks come from.”

He also recalled how, although the scenes were hot and heavy on screen, there was more than one time when he and Ashley burst into laughter on set.

“I do remember the post dance scene in his office,” he recalled. “After the first time they dance together at Aubrey Hall. Simone was wearing a tiara in that scene. My hair kept getting caught in her tiara but we were so determined to not break character or to break the spell. We'd sort of try and wrestle around with my quiffs pierced in her head. But that didn't really work and then the moment that happened more than once, we were obviously in hysterics.”

“That innate sensuality between the two of them also meant that if there was anything that we're finding funny, both of us would just go from that sort of ferocious intensity to an intense hysteria,” he added. “That was slightly tricky, but we worked out that nuzzling was only possible with no tiara.”

Although fans loved Simon Hastings’ spoon licking scene from the show’s first season, many fans have considered Anthony falling into the lake to be his own version of the spoon licking scene. However, Bailey recalled his… interesting way of eating ice cream as his own nod to the spoon lick.

“All I knew is what I was really excited about within the first montage of him dating was that I managed to eat ice cream really quickly in a very pragmatic, functional way. That was my nod to the spoon lick,” he explained. “There's nothing that made me laugh harder than the line, ‘If Hastings could do it, how hard could it be?’ Within the first five minutes. There was all that all the right nods, and also, in the writing was a sense of this is going to be a different ride completely. There are different ways in which you can eat ice cream.”

Many fans have criticized the fact that Kate and Anthony get very few scenes together after their engagement, which occurs in the last twenty minutes of the show. When asked if he wished there were more scenes together or hoped that there would be more going forward, Bailey had an interesting response.

“I'm with the fans and asking the same questions,” Bailey said. “I think that might be a nod to the fact that we might get to explore that side of it a bit more going forward, which would be nice.”

Season 2 of “Bridgerton” is currently available to stream on Netflix.