00:00Very interesting when a camera's so close to your ass, it's a new experience.
00:05Then you're kind of extra, extra conscious to apply cocoa butter.
00:11Hopefully, what most of us get to experience is a love that isn't based on a naivety,
00:18but then is based on experience and is based on having lived.
00:23He's just a walking green flag and he is a man.
00:26He is a character written by women, I think.
00:30But played by a man, you know, played by a man.
00:33This is Streamline, your weekly guide to what's actually worth watching across TV, film and everything in between.
00:39After what's felt like a very long social season, Bridgerton Season 4 Part 2 is finally here.
00:45And, dearest gentle reader, it was worth the wait.
00:48Mr Bridgerton, do you need something?
00:51No. I found it.
00:54Just to recap, this season follows a bit of a Cinderella storyline,
00:57which sees the hedonistic Benedict Bridgerton fall for a mysterious lady at a masquerade ball.
01:02But Part 2 isn't just about Benedict.
01:05Yes, Lady Bridgerton is down bad for Lord Marcus Anderson.
01:08I caught up with Daniel Francis, who plays Marcus,
01:11and naturally, there was one scene in particular that I needed to get the tea on.
01:16Am I to understand what this means?
01:18I am the tea that you are having.
01:20I am the tea you'll be having tonight.
01:23That line just, it just, it pings out.
01:25If we could get into that, because it's such an iconic moment.
01:29What was that sort of like, developing that with Ruth and the intimacy coordinators?
01:33I mean, how do you get that right and make it feel natural for the characters?
01:37Look, Ruth and I have a really good relationship with each other.
01:41We're very kind of comfortable with each other.
01:44And so, it just felt, it was a laugh, actually.
01:49You know, there was a little bit of nudity involved, and that was the first time.
01:54It's very interesting when a camera is so close to your ass.
01:59It's a new experience.
02:01You can take it slowly.
02:02Get on test.
02:04Intimacy is so much more than just, like, the physical act of, like, of sex or being naked with each
02:10other.
02:10Intimacy is being able to laugh with each other, to trust somebody, to respect someone.
02:16Was it intimidating for you as an actor, or were you prepared for it in some way?
02:21I, you know, it's just so the truth.
02:25As, you know, it's made sure that there was cocoa butter, that, you know, the things that kind of go
02:31through your mind, make sure your arse isn't dry.
02:33You know, and then...
02:36I'd say that's on or off camera, to be honest.
02:38Yeah, well, exactly.
02:39You know, but certainly when it's right there and you know it's going to be on a big screen, or
02:44on a screen, then you're kind of extra, extra conscious to apply cocoa butter.
02:53So, one of the reasons Bridgerton dominates the period drama space is its approach to representation.
02:58We see people of colour in positions of power and queer storylines woven into the ton.
03:03And then we have Violet and Marcus, a second chance romance that feels almost radical in an industry that's so
03:10obsessed with first loves.
03:11So what was it for you that felt meaningful about sort of telling a love story that comes later in
03:16life?
03:16We do not date in the way that they did in the Regency era.
03:20So most people are second, third, fourth chance loves, right?
03:26And so really it's about how do you start again when you've had loss, when you've been heartbroken,
03:35whatever way that has shown up in our life, as it does for many of us, how do you then
03:41find the strength, because vulnerability is a strength,
03:48how do you find the strength to start again, to open up and to be vulnerable again, to connect to
03:55a new person?
03:55I find it so refreshing and beautiful to see this, like, incredibly passionate love story with characters that aren't, you
04:04know, 20.
04:05Like, it's two characters who are over 40.
04:08And I mean, that's something that we don't genuinely see.
04:12Very rare do we see them portrayed in, like, a really, like, spicy, passionate way like we do.
04:17Why do you think that Hollywood and streamers sort of usually stay away from this kind of portrayal?
04:22It's a good question.
04:23I'm not, I have some, you know, thoughts around that.
04:27I think there is a, people from a kind of business perspective get caught in demographics and get caught in,
04:36you know, who we're creating content for, right?
04:39But then also from a story telling perspective and in the minds of people, we tend to remember our first
04:45love, right?
04:46Like, we tend to, we tend to, we tend to, it, these are these kind of novel and memorable experiences.
04:54So I can understand why kind of storytellers may look at that and say, well, that first love is more
05:01significant in the sense that it makes an imprint on us, right?
05:06And everything is then compared after that.
05:09You can, we, you know, most of us find love after the fact, right?
05:14We have that first love experience when it's new and it's novel.
05:18But then hopefully what most of us get to experience is a love that isn't based on a naivety, but
05:28then is based on experience and is based on having lived, having understood or had a developed a growing understanding
05:37of ourselves.
05:37Another reason this show resonates for so many people is its treatment of consent.
05:42Within a Regency world of limited female agency, Bridgerton consistently places female pleasure front and centre.
05:49Anyone who watched the Tudors will understand why that shift matters.
05:52With your majesty's permission.
05:54Granted.
05:55Bridgerton is a show that feels like it was written with women in mind.
05:58And so it celebrates a softer, gentler masculinity.
06:01This isn't something that sort of male characters always get to show in a Regency world.
06:05I'd love to know what it was like playing that kind of vulnerability and if it changed the way that
06:10you think about masculinity.
06:11The way I look at masculinity is really about being a safe space.
06:20Now, if you, you know, some people will look at things like, you know, the protector, the provider, these sorts
06:25of things.
06:26But what is, you know, you can look at the layers of protection.
06:29Some people get, you know, hung up on the physical aspect of protection or the financial aspect of protection.
06:37But there is also the concept of emotional protection.
06:40What Marcus does very well is that he holds space.
06:45He is an open, safe space for her to experience her emotion without judgment or shame.
06:56That's what is so kind of beautiful to watch and to play as Marcus because he's just present and he's
07:05just like, have your experience.
07:08I completely get it.
07:09There's nothing that you can show me that is going to unnerve me or to turn me off.
07:17You know what I mean?
07:18It's do you, be you.
07:21I'm content as long as I'm in your presence.
07:24He's just a walking green flag and he is a man.
07:27He is a character written by women, I think.
07:31But played by a man, you know, played by a man.
07:34It's giving the ladies what they deserve, I think.
07:38These men do exist that are, you know, what I would call as the mature masculine.
07:45You know, we hear a lot about the toxic masculine, you know, but I think for me, toxic masculinity, how
07:53I understand it is masculinity that has not been matured and nurtured.
08:00Where we don't have a society that understands how to nurture masculinity, right?
08:07And so what we have are these kind of immature masculine psychologies that have not formed and have not developed
08:14and do not understand how to deal with the emotional and the kind of psychological aspects of masculinity, right?
08:24So that's what it is.
08:25But there are men, there are plenty of men who have done and who are doing the work to be
08:31these safe spaces for women.
08:35Consider your social season officially cancelled because all eight episodes of season four are finally on Netflix.
08:41And while Daniel remained pretty tight-lipped on what's next in store for Marcus.
08:45I can't say anything.
08:46Ah!
08:47Not even, not even a sliver.
08:49We'll have to wait and see.
08:50Sources close to this author have confirmed that Netflix has officially ordered seasons five and six.
08:56So simmering scandal and flourishing gardens aren't going anywhere anytime soon.
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