Yerin Ha didn’t change for Bridgerton, the show changed for her

The Australian-Korean actor knew she didn’t “fit a mould” for her character, but for once, that didn’t matter. AdvertisementStreamingYerin Ha didn’t change for Bridgerton, the show changed for herBy Louise RugendykeFebruary 19, 2026SaveYou have reached your maximum number of saved items.Remove items from your saved list to add more.ShareAAAWhen Yerin Ha walked onto the set of Bridgerton for the first time, she felt like she had “climbed through a TV”.“It’s a world I had watched for years,” says Ha, who plays maid Sophie Baek in season four of the wildly popular Regency-era drama. “It felt so bizarre and surreal, but it just shows you how much work goes into preparing this detail, from the ceilings to the colours and everything. It just made it more realistic and easier for me to be able to focus on the scenes.”Yerin Ha as Sophie Baek, with co-star Luke Thompson, who plays Benedict Bridgerton.The 28-year-old Australian-Korean actor, who grew up on Sydney’s north shore, is in the middle of eating breakfast during a hectic trip back to Australia for the AACTA awards. It’s a brief respite from a whirlwind few weeks, where she was unveiled – quite literally, her character first appears wearing a mask at a ball – as the new love interest of Benedict Bridgerton (Luke Thompson).Editor's pickLiterature‘Wuthering Heights’ is many things, but it’s not the novel Emily Bronte wroteImportantly, she is also the series’ first lead with an East Asian background. In the books, written by Julia Quinn, her character is called Sophie Beckett, but upon casting Ha, the character’s name was changed to the Korean “Baek”.In the world of Bridgerton, this is not a big deal, as the show prides itself on its “blind casting”, where actors of colour have been chosen for roles that, historically, would have gone to white actors. The same goes for sexuality, as some characters – such as the upcoming Michaela Stirling – have been swapped from male in the book to female on screen.Advertisement“It is just an acknowledgement and a recognition of who I am,” says Ha, of the name change. “I’m not having to fit a mould that potentially was different. Yes, in the book, she’s blonde-haired, green- or blue-eyed, and I’m not, so how are they going to make the character fit me? And it was a very simple conversation. It didn’t need to be any more complicated than it needed to be.Yerin Ha’s Sophie Baek is a maid in Bridgerton’s retelling of Cinderella.“I think that’s what they do so well, they celebrate every individual for their own uniqueness. That’s what I love.”Season four is adapted from An Offer from a Gentleman, the third book in Quinn’s sprawling series. It is loosely based on Cinderella – Sophie is a maid, the illegitimate daughter of Lord Penwood, and unloved stepdaughter of Lady Penwood and her two daughters – but Ha sees it as a step away from the classic fairytale.Related ArticleStreamingWhat to stream this week: Derry Girls creator’s new comic thriller, plus five more picks“Yes, it’s a retelling of Cinderella,” says Ha. “But I do think ours takes that story and takes it on a bit of a spin. Sophie is so fascinating. She’s someone who’s grappling with her sense of identity. She’s been kept hidden her whole life. She’s not quite a noblewoman, but she’s not quite a maid.“So, I tried to bring a lot of aspects of me [to the character], of understanding what it’s potentially like to be an outsider. She’s someone who obviously has a lot of walls up and struggles with trust because the one person that she truly loved, her father, she felt betrayed her.Advertisement“She goes on a journey of what it means to let love in. And there is so much strength in softness, and vulnerability is not considered weak. So I think she goes on a journey of understanding that, basically.”That focus on class – the upstairs haves and the downstairs have-nots – is the thread that runs through season four. It stops short of going full Downton Abbey, but the servants are at least given more agency.Yerin Ha and Shabana Azeez, who stars in The Pitt, present the AACTA Awards earlier this month.Getty Images for AACTA“That’s probably why season four feels, energetically, perhaps a bit different,” says Ha. “I like to think that, anyway. By opening up the universe of the downstairs world, which I always say is like the heartbeat of the house, you get to see how it’s all run, and you do see the class disparity.Related ArticleStreamingShe spent her teen years with Hollywood’s biggest stars. Now a new era begins“It’s not a privileged romance between two noble people. It’s about [what’s forbidden]. When society tells you that you can’t be with someone purely because of class, what are you going to do? Are you going to fight for it? Or are you going to surrender to what society says? So I think it immediately raises the stakes in a completely different way for our season.”Ha and Thompson – long Bridgerton’s underappreciated MVP – have wonderfully zippy chemistry, giving the Netflix series the jolt it needed after a flatlining third season. Ha was a late pick for the role, and was catapulted