‘Bridgerton’ stars react to death of beloved character in season 4

Hannah Dodd as Francesca Bridgerton and Victor Alli as John Stirling in season 4 of ‘Bridgerton.’ (Liam Daniel/Netflix)

(SPOILER ALERT) The ton bid farewell to a beloved character in the newly-released second part of Bridgerton season 4.

Lord John Stirling, the husband of Francesca Bridgerton, dies in the sixth episode of the fourth season. While fans of Julia Quinn’s book series anticipated this at some point, no one knew exactly when it would occur. ABC Audio spoke with actors Victor Alli and Hannah Dodd, who portray the couple, about the fate of John.

“It’s interesting, because we knew it was coming for quite a while,” Dodd said. “You’re getting these scripts come in and you’re like, ‘OK, we have another episode, we have another episode.’ And, obviously, it is not something that the characters are aware of. So you try not to focus on it too much.”

Still, Dodd said she and Alli “really wanted to make sure that the time that we had, we really invested in those two characters.” They wanted to make “sure that it was going to be devastating to lose you,” Dodd continued, speaking directly to Alli.

Alli says the season was not shot in order, so the day he filmed John’s death scene was actually not his final day on the Bridgerton set.

“We shot that scene quite early on, and so it didn’t feel like it was the end,” Alli said. “Which, kudos to the guys who wrote the schedule, because it just felt like we got it out of the way, and we can now just enjoy the time left that we have with John.”

As for what it was like to channel Francesca’s grief, Dodd said, “a lot of those those scenes are a gift to get as an actor.”

“You really get to emote and it can be quite a cathartic experience,” Dodd said, calling her scenes in the episodes after his death “really lovely” but also “quite demanding.”

“But fun as well, in a psychotic actor way,” Dodd continued. “A couple of them were quite exhausting and I just wanted to make sure that we did John justice.”