Creator Chris Van Dusen reveals the five pop culture period pieces that inspired Bridgerton
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While Bridgerton has been heralded for the ways its inclusive casting and steamy emphasis on the female gaze has changed the game for period pieces, that doesn't mean it didn't take inspiration from the pop culture that came before it.
Creator Chris Van Dusen, who is wrapping up his time as showrunner on the hit Netflix series with the second season debuting March 25, was heavily influenced by lush, romantic historical pieces that preceded the explosive success of Bridgerton.
Liam Daniel/Netflix; Moviestore/Shutterstock; Everett Collection Jonathan Bailey in 'Bridgerton,' Colin Firth as Darcy in 'Pride and Prejudice,' and Keira Knightley in 'The Duchess'
He didn't necessarily include direct references to these properties (though in some cases, he has), but their tone, their opulence, and their attitudes toward sex and romance have all helped shape the series from bestselling romance novels into Shondaland television gold.
From Jane Austen to Stanley Kubrick, here are the five pop culture period pieces that most inspired Bridgerton.
Pride and Prejudice
Everett Collection; Moviestore/Shutterstock
Jane Austen and her satirical tales of love and marriage in Regency England have cast a long shadow over the romance genre, and in many ways, proved the ur-text for historical romantic fiction. Indeed, Bridgerton author Julia Quinn has cited Austen as inspiration and even been compared to her. For years, it's her stories that Hollywood has chosen to adapt, rather than delving into the host of new material contemporary authors have to offer.
So, it's only natural the Bridgerton would draw on her most famous work, Pride and Prejudice, and two of its most memorable screen adaptations, the 1995 BBC version and the 2005 feature film.
"Those are the gold standards," Van Dusen says. "They're so beautiful, and those images — Colin Firth in his white shirt, Darcy with the hand clench — have been seared onto my brain for as long as I can remember. It's why I fell in love with the genre in the first place."
The Age of Innocence
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Martin Scorsese's 1993 adaptation of Edith Wharton's novel was nominated for five Oscars for its lush and sexy take on the Gilded Age. Van Dusen cites it as a major influence for its sex scenes and use of voiceover in particular. "That movie is just so sensual and sexy without ever showing too much," he says. "It really set the bar, as far as all those longing looks you feel and see between two people from across the room. You can feel the yearning happening there. It sets up the rules of the society and the rules of a world in such an interesting, dynamic way. And I love the voiceover so much in that movie."
Dangerous Liaisons
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Based on Christopher Hampton's play of the same name, who himself wrote from a 1782 French novel, Dangerous Liaisons is the ultimate tale of sexual scheming and manipulation. Bridgerton may be steamy and romantic, but it's also got a biting wit to it, which Van Dusen says comes from this film. "I fell in love with that movie because it was so fun," he notes. "The tone is humorous, and it didn't take itself too seriously. The kinds of movies and television series that I'm always drawn to are those that never taken themselves too seriously and know what they are and know what they want to be. That movie is it. There's so much decadence in that movie; it's over the top. You can definitely feel that in Bridgerton."
The Duchess
Everett Collection
This 2008 take on real 18th-century aristocrat and tastemaker Georgiana, the Duchess of Devonshire, is the most recent on the list — so it's fitting that it really fed into Van Dusen's perspective on foregrounding the female gaze and the limitations women faced in this era. "That's such a fascinating character," he says. "Keira Knightley as Georgiana. She lived in such an opulent, gilded cage. A lot of those themes that that character is dealing with are very relevant to what we're doing on Bridgerton as far as women finding ways to assert their agency and strategizing about that."
Barry Lyndon
Everett Collection
One might not expect Bridgerton to take inspiration from Stanley Kubrick, the director behind sci-fi marvel 2001: A Space Odyssey and political satire Dr. Strangelove. But Kubrick also delved into period pieces with this 1975 adaptation of William M. Thackeray's novel, and it earned him Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Best Director. Van Dusen cites its visual style as majorly influential.
"I love that film from a purely aesthetic point of view," he says. "Early on, when I was developing the show, that movie was mentioned in just about every meeting that we had, and we pulled stills from it. The look of the film is so gorgeous with all the candlelight. You can really feel the warm glow of those candles. All of those interior night scenes were shot with actual candlelight and no other light, and it's just so stunning."
"The scale is so large in that movie — it's epic," he adds. "I'm a very visual writer, and so that movie definitely influenced me when developing the series."
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