Netflix has just announced the next leading lady for “Bridgerton”: Korean Australian actor Yerin Ha.
Ha, 29, who is known for her work in “Halo” and “Dune: Prophecy,” will star as Sophie Baek, the love interest of Benedict Bridgerton (Luke Thompson) in season 4 of the hit period series.
Unlike the high-society love interests that preceded her, Sophie is a maid who has spent most of her life working and concealing a mysterious past, Netflix revealed on companion sight Tudum. She meets Benedict when she goes undercover at the Bridgertons’ masquerade ball.
“What drew me to Sophie was that she immediately has obstacles — something that she constantly has to overcome,” Ha told Tudum. “Whether it’s this battle around social status or trying to hide her feelings from Benedict.”
The character in the original Bridgerton books was named Sophie Beckett, but showrunners changed her last name as a nod to Ha’s Korean background.
“It’s a really nice way for me to feel like the role is fit for me, rather than me having to fit a certain mold,” she said. “It’s amazing what it can do just in a psychological sense.”
Ha was involved in choosing the last name, Netflix said in the post, and settled on Baek after thinking about Korean surnames that start with a “B”.
“A name is the first bit of identity that you share with the world, and that’s why changing a name can be so powerful,” she said.
Benedict is the latest in the noble Bridgeton family to have a season dedicated to his love story.
The previous three seasons focused on Benedict’s siblings Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor), Colin (Luke Newton) and Anthony (Jonathan Bailey), who also had an Asian love interest in season two: the iconic Kate Sharma, played by Simone Ashley.
“It wasn’t until I started seeing the monitors and the shots of me and Charithra [Chandran, who played Edwina] on screen and it was two dark-skinned Indian women, two Tamil women on screen,” Ashley told NBC News in 2022. “That was when I was like, ‘Whoa, this is happening.’”
While many fans celebrated the representation, others said the show didn’t fully do its research when constructing the race of the characters. For example, Ashley seemed to slip back and forth between a British and Indian accent and her last name, Sharma, was inconsistent with the character’s South Indian roots.
References to British colonialism were also half-baked, some critics said at the time.
“I think it’s greatly flattened out,” said Harleen Singh, associate professor of women’s studies and South Asian history at Brandeis University.
Ha will be the second Asian love interest on the show, and after Ashley’s season broke Netflix weekly streaming records, fans in the comments say they’re more than excited. But they’ll have to wait, as there is no release date set for the premiere of season four.
“I feel so fortunate and grateful to be part of such a family,” Ha said.
