'Bridgerton' director wanted Martins Imhangbe's character Will Mondrich to combat the 'angry Black man' stereotype

Director Cheryl Dunye suggested that Martins Imhangbe play Will Mondrich as Jack Featherington's "equal." He replied: "What? Really?"

• Cheryl Dunye spoke to Insider about working on Will Mondrich's "Bridgerton" season-two storyline.
• The director wanted to show a Black man succeeding on-screen using his mind rather than his body. 
• When she told Martins Imhangbe to play Will as Jack Featherington's equal, he said: "What? Really?"

Warning: This article contains spoilers for season two of "Bridgerton."

When Will Mondrich goes head-to-head with Jack Featherington on Netflix's "Bridgerton," the director wanted Martins Imhangbe to focus on his character's brain, rather than his body, as the key to his success.

In the season-two finale, the boxer-turned-gentlemen's-club-owner tries to prevent his patrons from getting swindled in Jack's (Rupert Young) investment scheme.

Even as Jack belittles him and his business, Will remains calm and collected, a reaction that director Cheryl Dunye felt strongly about capturing.

"It was so interesting directing those scenes because — on the page, and from his body and stature, and what we understand about Black men and the way that they are portrayed in film, Black boxer body, etc.— you're thinking: 'Use your body, use your strength, and use your power,'" Dunye told Insider ahead of the season's March 25th premiere.

Dunye, who directed episodes seven and eight of the new season, had an entirely different vision for Imhangbe's delivery, one that she said the 30-year-old actor seemed "wholly excited by."

"I said, 'Use your intellect. Give me where you're just using your mind. You are just as powerful as this character that you're talking to,'" Dunye, 55, said.

The director wanted Imhangbe to veer away from playing into the "angry Black man" trope. To combat the stereotype, Dunye encouraged Imhangbe to play his character "as an equal" to Jack.

Her advice took the actor by surprise. "He was just like, 'What? Really?'" she recalled, adding, "He did it, and I got a whole other delivery."

At the time of Dunye's conversation with Insider, the director hadn't yet watched season two. However, she said she left "a lot of that intellect in there" in her director's cut.

"It really is another way to start thinking about Black men's performances," she told Insider. "It's not about the body. It's about the mind."