How Benedict's Bisexuality Was Handled In Bridgerton Season 4
The showrunner wanted to defy “harmful” stereotypes with his story.
Benedict’s love story in Bridgerton Season 4 may be with a woman, but that doesn’t negate his sexuality, according to showrunner Jess Brownell. She recently opened up about how the period romance’s latest season decided to handle its new lead’s bisexuality, including the ways in which Benedict is going against “harmful” stereotypes about bisexual men.
When Bridgerton first premiered, fans were surprised at how the series showcased Benedict’s romantic relationship with a male painter. His bisexuality was one of the show’s biggest changes from Julia Quinn’s novels. However, Benedict’s love story with Sophie in Season 4 stays much more true to the text — but that doesn’t erase the big change to his sexuality.
“It’s really important that just because someone might end up in a heterosexual-presenting relationship, that does not negate their queerness,” Brownell told Variety. “I think Benedict’s queerness will always be a piece of his identity.”
The showrunner sees Benedict’s relationship with Sophie as an underrepresented type of love in media. “When we were talking about representation, I don’t think there’s a lot of representation that I’ve seen of bisexual men,” Brownell continued. “There is a really harmful and untrue stereotype that bisexual men are actually just gay men. More often, we see bisexual men ending up in media in homosexual-presenting relationships. And it felt fresh and important to see a bisexual man ending up in a heterosexual-presenting relationship and still owning the fact that he is still queer.”
Brownell also discussed how she and actor Luke Thompson approached subtly bringing Benedict forward as Season 4’s lead instead of a side character like in seasons past.
“I think Benedict, at the very start of this season, he really hasn’t changed. It’s not until he meets Sophie, actually — or the masked woman, in this case — that he is inspired to change,” Brownell said. “So I think going into the season, there wasn’t a big glow up in the way that there have been for other characters. Frankly, Benedict has always been a really handsome, romantic character who presents in a glowed-up way from day one. But with each installment of this season, Luke was given the script to see how the character was going to change, and he really rose to the challenge of taking the character to a much more vulnerable place.”
