‘Bridgerton’ Has a New Francesca — Meet Hannah Dodd

Hannah Dodd didn’t mean to audition for Bridgerton. Then again, she didn’t mean not to.

It was the spring of 2022 and Dodd was responding to a casting call. She had “no idea” what the project was — the title and character name were kept tightly under wraps — only that she would be playing a Regency-era maiden. And while most auditions require multiple scenes, here she was only asked to perform one: a scene where she would play a guest at a ball. Normally, Dodd would do a ton of prep work before an audition to flesh out the character. With little information to go on this time, the experience was freeing, she says, if a little “weird.”

Months later, Dodd had a Zoom call with her team and found out that the mystery audition had been for a role on the Netflix smash hit Bridgerton — and she had gotten the part. This season on the frothy bodice-ripping drama, Dodd takes over the role of Francesca Bridgerton, the reclusive piano enthusiast played in seasons one and two by Ruby Stokes, who departed the show due to scheduling conflicts. And while the character saw limited screen time in the past, Dodd joins just as Francesca’s storyline is blossoming. Season Three (the first half is streaming now) sees the shy and reserved Bridgerton entering the marriage market alongside Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlin). As in the prior seasons, one of them is surely headed for a sultry betrothal by the final episode.

Dodd says assuming a leading role is “nerve-racking,” but she also draws a comforting parallel between herself and her onscreen counterpart. “Francesca’s a great character to [take on in joining] a show like this,” Dodd says. “It’s like life imitating art, because she’s new in that environment; I’m new in this environment. She’s working it out as she goes; so am I. She’s getting to know herself; I’m getting to know everybody. There were a lot of moments that I [could] just live in a little bit.”

A UK native who graduated from the London Studio Center in 2017, Dodd has a background in dance — everything from ballet and tap to contemporary. She applied that training in one of her first roles, as a ballet student in Hulu’s sci-fi fantasy Find Me in Paris. She’s also had parts in the Hulu period drama Harlots, set in an 18th-century brothel; the limited series Anatomy of a Scandal, a political thriller for Netflix; and, most recently, the teen mystery film Enola Holmes 2. 

Despite her experience, the prospect of stepping onto the set of a series as big as Bridgerton gave her jitters. This is a show that generated tons of conversation around colorblind casting and put cast members like Regé-Jean Page, Phoebe Dynevor, and Jonathan Bailey on the map. And that’s to say nothing of the very steamy sex scenes. 

Luckily, Dodd has co-stars who can relate. Claudia Jessie, who plays Eloise Bridgerton, says she still gets nervous returning to set each season. (“My natural setting isn’t, ‘I deserve to be here, I am unapologetically me, hear me roar,’” Jessie says. “My setting is ‘I’m sorry I’m here. I’m apologetically me. Hear me meow.’”) So, she snuck a little welcome gift into Dodd’s trailer in solidarity: a keychain decorated with two pendants — an “H,” for Dodd’s first name, and a bumble bee, which is a recurring symbol on the show (alternately said to represent the “buzz” generated by Penelope’s alter-ego, gossip writer Lady Whistledown; the powerful nature of the show’s “queen bee” women; and the patriarch of the Bridgerton clan, Edmund, who died by a bee sting).

“It is no small thing coming into a show like this,” Jessie says. “We’re a really warm, welcoming bunch, but obviously, you want to pay special attention to certain people at certain times. And Hannah is one of those people.” Jessie adds that Dodd needn’t have worried about fitting in: “Honestly, after about six minutes I was like, ‘Oh, it feels like she’s been here forever.’”

Within days of joining the series, Dodd got to work preparing. She ordered When He Was Wicked, the Julia Quinn novel that follows Francesca’s storyline, squeezed into embroidered gowns, attended dialect training, and, crucially for the character, studied piano.  

Bridgerton viewers first greet Francesca at the piano playing Mozart’s foreboding “Funeral March” ahead of her planned debut on the marriage circuit. As the other Bridgerton siblings bicker and flaunt new gifts later in Episode One, Francesca sits unagitated playing sheet music from Italy. More introverted than her exuberant sisters, she finds peace behind the keys.

Dodd — who says she is “slightly more confident” than Francesca, “but only slightly” — spent a month practicing “Funeral March” for that opening scene, and a few weeks rehearsing other melodies. She admits that she couldn’t read the “shapes and patterns” on the sheet music, so she instead memorized segments of songs so her playing could look as natural as possible. Dodd suspects the music accompanying those scenes, however, is not her own.

“I think there’s a very beautiful version being played that is not me that you probably hear,” she says. “But I learned all of them. I really, really wanted to learn all of them because it’s such a big part of her character.” 

Most important to the character is not her skill on the ivories, however, but her interiority. As the production team searched for a new Francesca, showrunner Jess Brownell says they needed someone with an enigmatic presence and a royal spark. Dodd stood out among hundreds of audition tapes due to her ability to draw internal turmoil to the surface. 

“It’s intentional that when you meet Francesca in the first episode you’re not sure about her,” Brownell explains. “We wanted the audience to get to know her as she’s getting to know herself.”

Brownell adds that fans familiar with Francesca’s storyline from the book will know that “she’s a character who encounters very high highs and very low lows.” And Season Three — the second half of which debuts June 13 — does not disappoint on that front. “There’s a lot more growth coming for her.”

Dodd says she is equal parts excited and terrified for fans to witness the developments to come. But Brownell knows she’s up to the task. “When we met her, we had faith that she would be able to portray a version of Francesca down the line who has a real strength and knows herself well. That is all inside of Hannah Dodd’s performance,” Brownell says, adding, “By the end of the season, I really believe she’s going to be one of [fans’] favorite characters.”
 
As for Dodd herself, she asks viewers to be patient while Francesca finds her footing — just as her Bridgerton colleagues were for her. “I had the best time on that set,” Dodd says. “The idea of getting to go back is just an absolute gift. I’d do whatever they asked me to do just to be on that set again.”

From Rolling Stone US.