The Other Bennet Sister‘s Dónal Finn is joining the ranks of other iconic fictional regency men who yearn — including Bridgerton‘s Jonathan Bailey.
Finn, 39, spoke exclusively to Us Weekly about TV fans who have compared his character, Mr. Tom Hayward, to Bailey’s Anthony Bridgerton, joking, “I hadn’t heard of the Bridgerton school of yearning but I should enroll.”
Despite not being familiar with season 2 of Bridgerton, Finn has been a big fan of Bailey’s work.
“I love Jonathan Bailey. He is a pretty inspiring man — and pretty easy man to fall in love with after I watched Wicked,” he told Us, referring to Bailey’s role as Prince Fiyero. “I have to confess I haven’t watched Bridgerton so I haven’t been to the school of yearning yet.”
Finn continued: “Given that we have finished this project, I will probably need to fill that void with another Regency show. So maybe I will now get around to watching Bridgerton.”
Based on Julia Quinn‘s book series, the show follows a different sibling from the Bridgerton family in every season on their journey to find love in the Regency era. Season 2 adapted The Viscount Who Loved Me, which followed Anthony Bridgerton (Bailey) finding love with Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley) to resounding success.
The Other Bennet Sister, meanwhile, is based on the novel by Janice Hadlow which follows the events from Pride and Prejudice from Mary Bennet’s (Ella Bruccoleri) point of view. The story then departs from that to follow Mary as she travels to London and the Lake District and the overlooked sister from the big Bennet family has a romantic adventure in Regency England.
In addition to Bruccoleri, The Other Bennet Sister stars Ruth Jones, Richard E. Grant, Indira Varma, Richard Coyle, Róisín Bhalla, Reggie Absolom and Jasmine Sharp. Laurie Davidson and Finn play Bruccoleri’s love interests while Varada Sethu, Aaron Gill and Maddie Close also appear on the show.
After premiering in the U.K. in March, The Other Bennet Sister became an overnight success due to clips going viral on social media. Romance fans in the U.S. have been awaiting The Other Bennet Sister‘s arrival on BritBox, with the first three episodes premiering on Wednesday, May 6.
“Hopefully [viewers] fall in love with an awful lot of people on the show. I read the scripts and I knew that there was humor in there — as well as lots of sincerity,” Finn gushed to Us. “But it wasn’t until I got on a Zoom and I met Ella and we started doing these scenes that I totally understood the tone.”
Finn praised his onscreen scene partner, adding, “She just made the whole piece just sing. I got such an immediately clear picture of who Mary Bennet was. And she’s obviously the lead of this and has this ability to work with so much enthusiasm every day. She’s also the most prepared person and has so much generosity to the other actors, the crew and is making sure that everyone is having fun and being looked after.”
He added: “I was just really inspired by her as a leading actor. I can’t believe that this was her first time leading a project. She made it just seem so natural.”
While teasing the show’s premiere in the U.S., Finn poked fun at the praise his character has gotten for his looks, saying, “I didn’t pay much attention to my forearms at all [until this]. I think it’s better that I didn’t overthink any of that stuff. I’m just glad that people like the content that’s out there. I find it a funny thing to talk about.”
New episodes of The Other Bennet Sister air Wednesdays on BritBox.
