\u201cMary is a non-typical period drama heroine. There\u2019s more of those women seen at the forefront of shows today, but very rarely in a period drama,\u201d Bruccoleri says later, hiding from the heat in her trailer. (And she would know: her prior credits include parts in Call the Midwife<\/em> and Bridgerton<\/em><\/a>.) \u201cThe women are feminine, ladylike, proper, or a bit coy\u2014Mary is none of that. She has no filter. She\u2019s proud, intelligent, messy. She doesn\u2019t know how to be anything other than that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes you read a period drama and it can feel a bit stiff\u2014it comes from that repressed feeling at the time,\u201d Bruccoleri goes on. \u201cOurs feels so intimate, so open. I\u2019m not playing a period-drama person\u2014I\u2019m playing a human that just so happens to live in 1814.\u201d<\/p>\n While the first block of filming was all dinner parties and ballroom scenes, much of the second took place around here, with the Welsh countryside standing in for Windermere and Scafell Pike in Cumbria. On the day I visit, Bruccoleri, Davidson, and Finn film a scene that will be familiar to P&P<\/em> fans: as both suitors vie for her attention (and jibe at each other), they drag Mary\u2019s boat through the water, staggering to shore with white shirts clinging to their torsos, \u00e0 la Colin Firth\u2019s Mr. Darcy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Photo: BBC\/Bad Wolf\/James Pardon<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n \u201cMy favorite scenes involve the main challenge of\u2026total exhaustion,\u201d says Davidson. In a bid for \u201cvisual integrity,\u201d he refused to wear the neoprene underclothes meant to keep him warm in the water\u2014\u201ca massive mistake,\u201d he admits later.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a sense of camaraderie on set. Varma, in costume but on a break, sunbathed on the banks of the lake and hollered encouragingly at Finn and Davidson. Finn and Bruccoleri shared AirPods and playlists (Mitski, Big Thief) to make sure they were entering scenes in the same frame of mind. (After filming, Bruccoleri presented Finn with a Big Thief vinyl and a framed lyric from their song \u201cMary.\u201d) Show writer Quintrell says the crew booed when Caroline Bingley (Tanya Reynolds) first treated Mary badly.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope the joy comes across. If it\u2019s half of what we experienced making it, that\u2019s more than enough,\u201d Quintrell says. \u201cIt\u2019s about what it is to come of age when you\u2019re the odd one out, and the transformative power of kindness.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/69d51c473b28204490c35471\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/559343.jpg\"\/)
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