Bridgerton star Jonathan Bailey talks bottoms with Lorraine Kelly
Jonathan Bailey told Lorraine Kelly about how make-up artists prepared his bottom for sex scenes in Bridgerton. (YouTube)
Bridgerton star Jonathan Bailey dished some of the secrets of filming nude sex scenes in an interview with Lorraine Kelly – and it involves having his bottom painted with make-up.
Jonathan Bailey, who is gay, sent queer men into a tailspin with his racy scenes in the Netflix series, which landed on the streaming platform on Christmas Day.
Now, he has opened up about just how they created those scenes – specifically, how his bottom was made up.
During an appearance on the Lorraine show on ITV on Tuesday (5 January), Kelly asked Bailey: “Can we talk briefly about bottoms?” – and just like that, queer men’s ears across the country perked up.
“Now we showed this photograph…” Kelly said, showing an image of a make-up artist carefully painting his bum on the set of Bridgerton.
“Now that’s got to be one of the best jobs in the world – that’s the wee lady who is, I think they call it ‘fluffing’ – is that what they do?” she asked, sending gay viewers into a euphoric rush of laughter.
Bailey replied: “I don’t know what they call it Lorraine – I think they call it ice breaking!”
He went on to tell the host that the photo of the make-up artist doing up his bottom was taken just before he filmed his first scene on the show – indicating that he really was thrown in at the deep end.
“Funnily enough I think you blurred out part of the bum which makes it look like she’s painted it over,” he joked, noting that producers carefully censored his bottom in the image.
The actor said they had intimacy coordinators on set to make sure all actors felt safe and comfortable while filming sex scenes on Bridgerton.
“But there’s a moment when they say ‘can we lower the britches’ and when I lowered them they were like ‘can we call in make-up?’ And that’s when you go [grimaces] but luckily it was just to shine the botty,” he explained.
Lorraine replied: “Of course it was, it’s perfect, we have all seen it!”
Bridgerton star Jonathan Bailey was told not to come out as gay.
Jonathan Bailey has previously opened up about the challenges he has faced in the film and television industry, revealing that other high-profile queer men told him not to come out publicly as gay.
He told Attitude magazine that gay men who work in publicity and as casting directors told him that he should refrain from publicly stating his sexuality.
“The most conservative conversations I’ve had about me being honest about my sexuality in this day and age have come from gay men in the industry,” he said, “‘Oh, no, you can’t come out. You shouldn’t really do that’.
“They’re either people who work in publicity, or there’s also been casting directors who have put the call into my agent to say: ‘Just so that you know, the way that this is going to be sold is that it’s a gay story written by gay writers for gay actors. So, by just taking the role’.
“This was at a stage where perhaps I was coming to terms with my own sexuality, I hadn’t necessarily hidden it.
“But I’ve never been not honest about it. It’s just there had never been a need to talk about it.”
Bailey went on to come out publicly as gay in 2018.
