How Yerin Ha Became the Belle of Bridgerton’s Ball

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I was so nervous after getting the part of Sophie Baek in the new season of Bridgerton – it’s amazing to be the first Korean lead, and following Simone Ashley as an Asian lead was a little daunting! I’m pretty shy, so I wasn’t even sure if Simone would remember who I was if I messaged her. But honestly, she reached out to me first! It was so kind of her to say she was there if I needed anything. It really meant a lot.

Okay, let me tell you about the latest addition to the Bridgerton family. The new season introduces Ha as Sophie, and she’s joining a pretty exclusive club – the leading ladies of this massively popular Netflix show. It’s a role that comes with a lot of attention, that’s for sure. What’s particularly interesting is that, like Simone Ashley before her, Ha is playing a character whose ethnicity has been updated for the show. The producers are clearly committed to diverse casting, and it works! You might remember Kate Sharma, who was originally envisioned as white in the books, but was brilliantly reimagined as Indian. This season, they’re doing the same thing with Sophie Beckett, and Ha brings a wonderful fresh perspective to the role. You can catch the first part of the new season on January 29th, and the second part on February 26th.

The story will follow Sophie’s journey as it was originally written. She first encounters Benedict at a masked ball, where she’s attending secretly, and he quickly falls for her. Sophie intends to keep her identity hidden, as she’s both a servant and the unrecognized daughter of an earl.

She never imagined she’d be the star when she first submitted her audition. Now, about two months before the show premieres, she’s reflecting on the experience from a hotel lounge in Manhattan. “I assumed it was a smaller part when my agent said it was for Bridgerton,” explains the 27-year-old actor, who is based in Sydney. “Then I found out it was for the main role, and they were actually considering an East Asian woman for the lead.”

The creators of Bridgerton were focused on reflecting their diverse audience. Jess Brownell, who leads the show since Season 3, explains they regularly assess how well the show represents the world around them. Though Yerin Ha’s audition tape was viewed later in the casting process, the team immediately knew she was perfect for the role of Sophie. Brownell wanted someone who could match Benedict’s worldliness with a character who felt wise beyond her years, but also playful. Brownell notes that Ha, despite being in her 20s, convincingly portrays someone with a lot of life experience and a deep inner world, describing her as having a comedic energy similar to Lucille Ball – naturally funny and physically expressive.

It took Ha some time to adjust to being the star of a romantic series. She admits she never pictured herself in that role, and felt like an impostor, largely because growing up, she rarely saw actresses who looked like her playing romantic leads in Hollywood—aside from characters like Mulan. While there are now more films and shows featuring Asian characters, like Shogun, Beef, and Everything Everywhere All at Once, very few of them focus on romance. Ha explains that a lack of representation can make it hard to believe your dreams are possible.

The actress fondly remembers visiting a Korean video store in Sydney during her childhood. Her father would rent Korean dramas, and they enjoyed watching them together, which helped her learn the language. She excitedly recalls two particular favorites: “Secret Garden, with Hyun Bin—it’s iconic!” she says, referring to the 2010 romantic comedy about a CEO who falls for a stuntwoman. She also loved Boys Over Flowers, a 2009 series where a wealthy heir falls in love with a dry cleaner’s daughter. She notes that both shows, like the fourth season of Bridgerton, follow a Cinderella-like storyline. “Many K-dramas explore themes of class differences—often featuring a wealthy mother disapproving of her son’s relationship with a girl from a lower social class,” the actress explains. These shows were on her mind as she began filming her character’s story.

K-dramas were different. Growing up in a predominantly white area, Ha rarely saw people who looked like her, whether in real life or on TV. When she decided she wanted to be an actress, she didn’t believe Australia offered opportunities for her and felt she needed to go to Korea. Acting runs in her family—her grandmother, Son Sook, is a well-established actress in Korea, and her grandfather, Kim Seong-ok, also performed. At 15, Ha moved to Korea and spent three years training at a demanding performing arts school.

As Ha neared graduation, she started to question if she needed to stay in Korea for her career. She noticed that in Hollywood, Asian actors were getting more diverse roles – not just limited to stereotypical characters like convenience store owners or sex workers. To pursue this, she first returned to Sydney and enrolled at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), a prestigious school known for alumni like Cate Blanchett, Baz Luhrmann, and Sarah Snook.

Her gut feeling about Hollywood was right – she quickly became a main cast member in Halo, the Paramount+ series based on the popular sci-fi video game. Ha acknowledges how quickly this happened, calling it unusual. She went on to appear in Dune: Prophecy, HBO’s prequel series. She explains that she always wanted to work in Hollywood, not just Australia, because she felt it offered more innovative storytelling and diverse casting opportunities.

Casting Ha was just the beginning of telling the love story of Benedict and Sophie. Once the show’s creator, Brownell, knew her lead would be East Asian, she worked with the organization CAPE (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment) to ensure an authentic and respectful depiction. CAPE helped the team understand and avoid harmful stereotypes about East Asian women. Brownell explains, “We were careful not to portray the character as overly sexualized or passively submissive.”

Many have applauded Bridgerton for its sensual scenes, which were filmed with a focus on the female perspective. However, according to Ha, these moments are rooted in genuine connection. She explains that the show prioritizes characters truly seeing each other internally, allowing passion to develop naturally from within. The creators also made a deliberate choice not to heavily emphasize Sophie’s Korean heritage, though they were careful to portray her ethnicity accurately. As Ha puts it, the beauty of Benedict and Sophie’s relationship is that Benedict simply sees Sophie for who she is, without focusing on her background.

This approach differed from Ashley’s season. According to Brownell, it felt natural to incorporate Indian ceremonies and clothing for Kate, as she was raised in India. However, Sophie’s background is different. While we know her family has Korean roots and grew up in England, we subtly acknowledged that heritage. Ultimately, the character feels primarily British.

When Ha first read the third book in the series, An Offer From a Gentleman, she was immediately struck by Sophie’s cleverness and funny personality. But she also felt deeply for Sophie’s difficult past. “I really felt heartbroken for her,” Ha explains, “and I could relate to her feelings of inadequacy and not feeling worthy.” Ha is realizing she may always struggle with feeling like an impostor. She connects this to her upbringing, saying, “There’s a lot of pressure in Asian cultures to constantly strive for more and work incredibly hard.” While her parents were supportive, she notes that growing up in a Western country as part of an Asian family meant she often had to expend extra effort to be noticed and understood.

Ha has been really impressed by Sophie’s confidence. Even though the show portrays her as less important, she isn’t afraid to ask for what she deserves. Ha explains, “[Sophie] knows what she’s worth and doesn’t just say yes to things to make her own life easier.” Ha used to feel grateful just to be included, but now she’s learning to be more assertive and stand up for herself.

Ha says her confidence was especially important while filming the intimate scenes in Bridgerton. As an Asian woman, she’s acutely aware of the pressure to be thin – a pressure that also exists within Western beauty standards. Playing Sophie made her think about what it truly means to feel comfortable in her own skin. “There’s no such thing as perfection,” she explains. She recalls focusing on perceived flaws growing up, like her eyebrows or eyelashes, things many others wouldn’t even notice. Ultimately, she realized it’s about changing your perspective: “This is what I was born with, and how can I embrace it?”

The lounge is getting noisy, but Ha continues to speak softly. Despite being on the verge of her biggest career moment, she sounds like someone who’s been famous for years. This role has helped her accept who she is now, and it’s also making her think about what she wants to achieve in the future. While Sophie is very practical, she’s balanced by Benedict, who is a bit of a dreamer. Ha explains that she used to focus too much on the past, but she’s now determined to take on leading roles and aim higher. She’s realized she wasn’t allowing herself to dream big enough.

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2026-01-29 15:07