Cheryl Dunye’s hands were full as the director for the final episodes of “Bridgerton” season two.

In the final two episodes, “Harmony” and “The Viscount Who Loved Me,” the 55-year-old director was responsible for wrapping up an unwieldy amount of storylines, one of which belonged to central couple Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley) and Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey).

For six whole episodes of leadup, the characters exchanged cutting jabs and longing gazes. Dunye was tasked with driving their enemies-to-lovers romance home, and that meant directing both of their sex scenes.

During a phone conversation with Insider ahead of the season’s March 25th premiere, Dunye discussed her directorial strategy for bringing the couple’s intimate moments to the screen.

Bailey and Ashley on the season finale of “Bridgerton” season two.Netflix

Dunye considered race while directing season two’s intimate moments

While working on “Bridgerton,” Dunye said she had many behind-the-scenes discussions about the depth and complexities of its relationships.

“I wouldn’t say I had red flags up, but I was always on the lookout for understanding what that relationship meant about race, about sexuality, and about what happened in last season, which had a different dynamic of race and sexuality combined,” she explained.

The season-one protagonist Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor), a white English woman, has sex with Simon Basset (Regé-Jean Page), a Black Englishman, for the first time when she’s already his wife.

In episode seven, Kate, an Indian woman, is unmarried when she sleeps with Anthony, a white Englishman.

Kate Sharma and Anthony Bridgerton on season two of the Netflix Regency romance.Netflix
If Kate and Anthony were to get caught together sans chaperone in late 19th-century London high society, his reputation would recover, while hers would not.

While Dunye wanted to depict Kate as a woman who emanates “empowerment,” “satisfaction” and “control” during her sex scenes with Anthony, her race and marital status still needed to be factored into their relationship dynamic, Dunye said.

“I really worked with the writers and the team to make sure that was clear. Some people didn’t know. They were like, ‘Oh my god, I wasn’t even thinking about that.’ So I was like, ‘Yeah, I mean, you cannot see this brown woman giving it up,'” the director explained, adding, “That was something that I really made sure that everybody was on the same page with.”

Dunye referenced her experience starring in her own sex scenes in the 1996 film “Watermelon Woman” and directing intimate moments in movies like “Stranger Inside” (2001) during her time working on Anthony and Kate’s scene.

“It’s always important to know who’s in charge of whose body and how people are being pleasured and what the takeaway is and what the empowerment is. So, I wanted to make sure that happened,” she told Insider.

Kate and Anthony are the protagonists on “Bridgerton” season two.Netflix

Kate and Anthony’s dynamic shifts after they married

The couple’s second and final sex scene comes at the end of the finale, “The Viscount Who Loved Me,” which takes its name from Julia Quinn’s 2000 novel. By this point, Anthony and Kate are six months into their marriage, and according to Dunye, their dynamic has shifted.

“Their lovemaking was different in that they were completely equal partners. That was something that we saw that was different but passionately engaged,” she told Insider.

Simone Ashley and Jonathan Bailey on “Bridgerton.”Netflix
Dunye worked closed with Bailey, Ashley, and “Bridgerton” intimacy coordinator Lizzy Talbot to find “positions where we feel both people being satisfied as partners.”

By the end of the scene, Dunye wanted viewers to leave thinking: “Wow, they’re in a happy marriage.”