yerin ha has described apprehension about filming one of Sophie Baek’s most intimate moments for Bridgerton season four, saying she wasn’t sure a book-favorite bathtub sequence would survive the television adaptation. The scene’s inclusion arrives as season four, part two, was released on Netflix on February 26, putting the actor’s comments and the creative choices behind the sequence in the immediate spotlight.
Yerin Ha on the Bathtub Scene
Ha said she was “super nervous about filming the intimacy scenes, ” noting that being filmed in that way felt exposing and daunting. She framed that nervousness in societal context, explaining that, as a woman, people often comment on one’s body and having a large audience amplifies that scrutiny. That pressure contributed to her uncertainty about performing the bathtub sequence.
Her approach to overcoming that apprehension was practical and relational. Ha emphasized that concentrating on the emotional core of Benedict and Sophie’s relationship helped her move out of self-consciousness: the characters’ passion and connection justified showing physical intimacy. Trust with her co-star Luke Thompson also played a role; Ha said that knowing Thompson afforded her a sense of safety on set.
On the logistics of filming, Ha described a working atmosphere that combined levity with professionalism. After completing the first take she felt a release—”Great. We’ve done it now. We can do as many takes as we want”—which reduced the pre-shoot anxiety she identified as the hardest part. The sequence’s execution therefore reflected both careful emotional preparation and a practical rehearsal process.
How Julia Quinn’s Bath Scene Shaped the Screen Version
The sequence in question draws directly from Julia Quinn’s novel An Offer from a Gentleman. In the book, Sophie is rescued from jail and takes a much-needed bath at Benedict’s Mayfair home; Benedict joins her, washes her hair, and later they have sex in his bed while still unmarried. The book includes an explicit line of devotion from Benedict: “In my heart, you are my wife. ” Those concrete beats—rescue from jail, the Mayfair bath, and the intimate exchange—served as the blueprint for the televised moment.
Season four’s adaptation amplifies certain anxieties present in the novel, particularly Sophie’s fear that she might be pregnant out of wedlock after an earlier encounter. That heightened focus changes the calculus of the bathtub scene: whereas the book’s sequence plays as a heartfelt turn in the romance, the show’s greater emphasis on pregnancy-related fear makes Sophie’s choice to re-enter an intimate situation more narratively fraught. Ha acknowledged that tension, saying she wasn’t even sure the bathtub scene would make it into the series given how the television version deepened Sophie’s worries.
The timing matters because the episode’s arrival on Netflix on February 26 put viewers immediately in a position to judge the adaptation choices. The decision to include the bath — and to frame it within intensified emotional stakes — therefore functions as both a creative and editorial judgment about how far the show will go to translate the source material’s central moments while reshaping their context.
What makes this notable is that the scene operates on two levels: it is at once a nod to a beloved passage in Quinn’s book and a more complicated emotional turning point for Sophie in the televised narrative. That dual function helps explain why Ha approached the moment with such care and why the production’s tone on set—mixing levity with focused trust—was integral to its realization.
The conversation around the bathtub scene highlights broader adaptation choices in season four: fidelity to recognizable book sequences balanced against a willingness to recalibrate character motivations and anxieties for dramatic effect. In practice, those choices shaped not only what viewers now see but also how performers like Ha prepared for and articulated some of the series’ most intimate material.