Time - INT (2022-05-23)

76 TIME May 23/May 30, 2022

AFTER STARRING IN THE SECOND
season of Bridgerton—the lush pe-
riod drama that has become Netflix’s
most watched English- language series
ever—the actor Jonathan Bailey could
have done anything. He chose some-
thing that he knew would be a chal-
lenge. “Cock!” Bailey says brightly, over
lunch on a sunny London afternoon. A
woman at a nearby table looks up, pos-
sibly scandalized.
That’s the name of the play, writ-
ten by Mike Bartlett, that Bailey, 34,
headlines now on the West End, in
a sparse, spiky production directed
by two-time Tony winner Marianne
Elliott. He stars as John, a man in a
long-term gay relationship who sleeps
with a woman, causing a messy love
triangle. It’s a talky play, but Bailey
gives a muscular performance, em-
bodying John’s inner turmoil as some-
one who’s so addicted to being desired
that he ends up becoming kind of a—
well, it’s in the title. Or is John instead
the one being manipulated by those
who desire him? “That’s the most gen-
erous way into the character,” Bailey
says. Yet Cock is more provocative than
even its title might suggest, with much
to say about sexuality, gender, and the
ways in which labels, even the ones
we’ve chosen, limit us. “It’s just four
people onstage with no set,” he says,
“yet it’s one of the most expansive
things, emotionally and thematically,
I’ve worked on.”
Bailey, who was raised in Oxford-
shire, England, has been perform-
ing since he was a child; he recounts
dancing to Andrew Lloyd Webber
for his grandmother as a little boy.
After being scouted in a ballet class,
he went to work for the Royal Shake-
speare Company at the age of 7, per-
forming in plays like A Christmas Carol
and Les Misérables. He loved theater so

UNITED KINGDOM

Jonathan

Bailey

A quietly radical

Hollywood heartthrob

BY SAM LANSKY

much that one summer as a teenager,

he staged a production of A Mid summer

Night’s Dream with his friends, just for

fun: “It was completely generated by

passion,” he says. He’s since become

an accomplished stage actor, starring

opposite Ian McKellen in King Lear

and winning an Olivier Award for his

performance in Company on the West

End, also directed by Elliott. Onscreen,

too, he has appeared in a string of ac-

claimed series, from Broadchurch to

shows by beloved creators Phoebe

Waller-Bridge and Michaela Coel. But

it was the role of Lord Anthony Bridg-

erton, in the show adapted from Julia

Quinn’s Regency-era romance novels,

that anointed him as a global star.

IN THE FIRST SEASON of Bridgerton,

Bailey was just one member of a large

ensemble. But in the second season,

which premiered in March 2022 and

smashed streaming records, Bailey’s

Anthony took center stage. His search

for a wife became the central story line,

leading him into a very different kind

of love triangle, here with half-sisters

PHOTOGRAPH BY JASON HETHERINGTON