Yearning is so back. From the simmering tension of Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov in Heated Rivalry to the forbidden love of Benedict and Sophie in this season of Bridgerton, we haven’t yearned this feverishly since the Brontë sisters were alive and publishing.
But what is it that’s seen this sudden desire for the deep emotion on our screens? Yerin Ha, who portrays our Cinderella-esque star of the Ton in season four has some thoughts.
“I think in our generation and society right now, everything is so quick paced. Your retention span is short, like the dating apps, it’s quick; You just swipe and that’s it,” she tells marie claire.
“Whereas I feel like yearning you really have to build a connection with someone. Luke [who plays Benedict] said it great: ‘It takes time to be able to feel that for someone or feel like you are receiving it in a way.’”
For dedicated and loyal audiences, there’s nothing more satisfying than when yearning begets… action. For Sophie and Benedict the break in tension culminated in the stairwell of the Bridgerton house.
The reality of shooting the scene, however, was far from the steamy romp we saw on screen.
“What was so funny was that I was scheduled to shoot like way before we actually shot, but I got the flu, so it was very unattractive. We had to reshoot it,” Ha recalls.
“I think I might have shot it like just before my birthday – it’s a great way to celebrate a birthday,” she laughs. “But we have an intimacy coordinator, she’s amazing and it is very much like a dance, it’s like choreography.”
The 28-year-old Sydney-born actress notes there’s something so “poetic” about two people coming together (pun not intended but very much appreciated) on a set of stairs. And in 2026, it seems Bridgerton isn’t alone in framing the stairwell as the hottest scene for our yearning leads to meet.
Some of TikTok’s most viral fan edits of the past year include The Summer I Turned Pretty’s finale with Belly and Conrad in her Parisian apartment stairwell and Ilya and Shane’s heated episode two makeout in a dingy fire escape.
“the whole upstairs-downstairs thing, it felt like a very poetic, metaphorical kind of meeting,” Ha muses on her own stairwell scene, before adding with a laugh: “Maybe it’s the risk of like feeling like you’re going to fall, some danger to it, you know?”
We counter that perhaps it’s an element of wanting so deeply, one can’t wait to get beyond the stairs to an actual bed.
“Yeah, exactly. You can’t even wait to go to the bloody bedroom. You have to do it then and there on the stairwell.”
Unfortunately for fans (and Ha’s character), the part one cliffhanger that saw Benedict ask Sophie, mid-romp, to become his mistress. It was the television equivalent of being doused with a bucket of cold water, and left many fans outraged at the Bridgerton brother.
“I understand [the outrage], I get the ick,” she concedes before adding: “I think we should give a little bit of grace to the era, back then, being a mistress was potentially a noble man’s way of giving someone from a lower class an easier life.
“But, Sophie would rather die than be someone’s mistress.”
Bridgerton season four part two is coming to Netflix on February 26.
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