Kate (Simone Ashley) and Edwina
(Charithra Chandran); his perfor-
mance made him the subject of fervent
fan adoration. Bailey credits show-
runner Chris Van Dusen for building a
period drama without precedent. “He
proved that you can take two South
Indian women and put them on the
poster, and you can put a queer actor
as a straight romantic lead, and deliver
on this incredible global scale,” Bailey
says. “It’s a relection of how we’re
moving as a society.”
Bridgerton is executive- produced
by Shonda Rhimes, the TV master-
mind and writer- producer whose many
hit shows have proved that inclusive
story telling isn’t just responsible—
it’s good business. But for an industry
with supposedly liberal politics, Holly-
wood hasn’t historically been friendly
to openly gay actors: in the past, it was
likelier you’d ind “straight people play-
ing gay roles, winning awards for it, and
then being told that they’re brave,” says
Bailey, “which is so demoralizing.” And
the conventional wisdom was that au-
diences wouldn’t buy a gay actor as
a straight leading man. To see Bailey
now, as a wholly convincing heartthrob
on one of the biggest platforms in the
world, is a quietly radical thing, and an
auspicious sign of where Hollywood
is heading.
After lunch, we rent bicycles and
ride along the Mall where, ahead,
Buckingham Palace looms. It’s a
breezy spring day. Cock will close on
June 4, after which there have been ru-
mors that the show will ind new life,
maybe in a move to Broadway, or in a
ilm adaptation. For now, Bailey will
have exactly one day of before he re-
turns to set to ilm the next season of
Bridgerton. It’s busy, but he’s grateful.
“There’s that sense of taking stock,
of making sure that I can fully real-
ize all these amazing opportunities,”
he says. “It’s something I don’t take
lightly at all.”
We pause on the banks of the
Serpentine. “So,” he says, “where shall
we go next?”
83◁◁ Bailey starred in the second season
of Bridgerton, Netlix’s most viewed
English- language series
TASHI R. GHALE—ROLEX