There’s been non-stop fan discourse about Netflix’s Bridgerton now that all of season 3 is out. However, one of the best things about it finally being available is hearing what the cast has to say about filming our favorite moments. And sometimes, a picture’s worth a thousand words.
Let’s be honest: A large percentage of our interest in Bridgerton lies in its steamy sex scenes. This season, a fair percentage of them went to the central couple of Colin (Luke Newton) and Penelope (Nicola Coughlan), who finally consummated their relationship over and over while also dealing with their very real flaws and personal growth.
While their first scene together in the back of a carriage was epic in its suddenness and its hunger, the scene where they have sex in what will be their future home for the first time is not only hot, but it’s an empowering one for Penelope. In that moment, Colin treats Penelope with something more important than love. He treats her with respect.
He understands that he’s her first lover, but he’s not patronizing in his acknowledgement of her lack of experience. He constantly checks in for consent and asks her what she wants. When she has questions about what to do, he answers them in a way that allows the decision-making to remain with her, rather than prescribing specific actions. And when she does something he’d rather she didn’t do (yet—you know what I’m talking about), he tells her, gently setting his own boundaries while remaining firmly in the moment.
What’s great about Colin and Penelope’s scenes together is not only that they’re hot, but that it seems like both parties are genuinely enjoying themselves and each other. Neither one is “performing” for the other. One of the benefits of having been friends and going into a sexual relationship after having known each other so long is that there’s a level of trust that they have with each other that we haven’t seen with the other couples. This allows them to just jump into being playful and having fun with each other.
When the second half of season three dropped, Nicola Coughlan commemorated the occasion by capturing the sense of playfulness and fun that also seems to exist in real life between herself and her co-star, Luke Newton.
“Part Two is out now, we put our heart and soul into it,” she wrote in an Instagram post. “[H]ope you love watching it as much as we loved filming it. ❤️” She then included two photos of herself and Newton on the Bridgerton set kneeling next to the chaise lounge on which they filmed that scene. In the first, Newton has an expression of mock embarrassment on his face while Coughlan is beaming and they both give thumbs up.
In the second photo, there’s a close-up of the legs of the chaise lounge to illuminate what you might have missed in the first photo. The back leg is broken. Clearly, the actors attacked that scene with abandon. Furniture be damned! And they both seem pretty amused by and happy about it.
So am I, to be honest.
Season three of Bridgerton is now available for your viewing and reviewing pleasure (we know what scenes you’ll be going back to, you pervs) on Netflix.
