Most bodice-ripping romances hinge on a strapping suitor saving a delicate heroine. But in Bridgerton season three, Nicola Coughlan’s Penelope Featherington isn’t holding out for a hero—as Luke Newton’s Colin Bridgerton learns in the tumultuous early days of their marriage. “Growing up in the Bridgerton family and having the lack of a father for a certain amount of years, I feel like he has a weird, twisted opinion on what a man’s role should be within a family,” Newton says while visiting the Still Watching podcast studio. “So meeting Penelope really helps him reset that. He has to learn that he just needs to be present and support her, and he doesn’t need to protect or save her. She is a strong, independent woman. She’s been dealing with the stress of being around London society at that time, but also being the most successful businesswoman in town.”
In the third season’s action-packed final four episodes, Colin learns that his bride-to-be also happens to be Lady Whistledown, the very same figure he once vowed to publicly “ruin.” But Colin and Penelope walk down the aisle anyway, and after an angst-filled newlywed period—including his disastrous attempt to save his new wife from blackmail—they settle into a mutually satisfying marriage. “In truth, I have been envious of you,” Colin tells Penelope shortly after she unmasks to the entire Ton. “And now I simply cannot believe that a woman with such bravery loves me. If my only purpose in life is to love a woman as great as you, then I will be a very fulfilled man indeed.”
Newton says he and Coughlan watched that scene together amid their global press tour. “It was very emotional for us, because it’s the moment when Colin says, ‘I realize that you are her. There’s no separating the two of you,’” he explains. “She’s just been separating the two worlds, when really, if she learns to accept them as one, then, to him, she’s just perfect. It’s a beautiful ending.”
Below, Newton chats with Still Watching about his love story’s long-awaited conclusion, from dismantling Colin’s “hero complex” (and sexily breaking some furniture in the process) to his hopes for season four of Bridgerton.
Vanity Fair: In only four episodes, Colin discovers Lady Whistledown’s identity, gets married, has a child, and publishes a novel. What was your initial reaction to reading the back half of this season?
Luke Newton: Coming to the end of part one, I was excited to see giddy Colin in this place of contentment, engaged, hopefully going to live this happily ever after. Obviously, there was the Whistledown secret underlying, but I was hoping that we’d get a moment of light relief. We see a real smidgen of that, and then immediately he starts to sense that something’s wrong.
He just really goes through it, and I loved diving into it. He’s tortured throughout the season—even at the start when he sees Pen from afar and how well she’s doing with all these new suitors. Then later on down the line, it cuts deeper. So it was a real challenge for me, particularly with the way that Colin had been portrayed previously in seasons one and two, to really dive into this darker side.
Rather quickly in the new episodes, we see Colin and Penelope get intimate for the first time post-carriage scene. How did the two of you approach this major scene?
We had a load of conversations with all departments. We started with a conversation just with the intimacy coordinator, Nicola and I, and kind of talked through what was written on the page, then how we wanted to bring that to life and what we felt was appropriate for this love story.
For both of us, we just gave a hundred percent into this season. There was no stone left unturned. We honestly just went for it. We really explore the themes of consent, and Colin is naturally a very sensitive and empathetic person, particularly when it comes to those moments. He’s very protective over Pen, so we see that care coming out. And it’s beautiful to watch back and see that it’s still sexy. It’s not tearing their clothes off. It’s really sexy, but it’s full of tenderness and care.
We had previous [intimate] scenes. There was the carriage scene, the kiss scene, and the dream sequence. But that was the first time that we were fully exposed. And there’s the weird parallels in that they both are as characters in that moment as well. They really open up and become honest with each other for the first time. They needed to have that. It takes the story to the next level.
Luke Newton and Nicola Coughlan in Bridgerton.LIAM DANIEL/NETFLIX
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