Lady Whistledown would be proud! As filming on season 3 of Bridgerton begins, Luke Newton, Nicola Coughlan and the rest of the cast have been offering fans a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the beloved period drama.
“Bridgerton season 3 filming has officially begun,” the Derry Girls alum teased in a July 2022 Instagram video shared by most of her costars via Instagram. In the clip, Coughlan — in full hair and makeup but wearing sweatpants — invites Newton to join her on a carriage ride, a nod to a steamy moment the pair share in the book Romancing Mr. Bridgerton. “You coming in?” She asks, to which her onscreen love interest grins.
“Let’s go,” Newton responds with a smirk, before climbing in and shutting the door behind him.
The period drama’s highly anticipated third season will center on Coughlan and Newton’s characters, Penelope Featherington and Colin Bridgerton, respectively, and their love story. “Season 3 finds Penelope Featherington as she’s finally given up her crush on Colin Bridgerton after hearing him disparage her to his friends last season,” Netflix’s official synopsis for the show teased. “Instead, she’s focusing on finding a husband who will respect her independence so she may continue her double life as Lady Whistledown, away from her mother and sisters. Due to her lack of confidence, however, her search doesn’t go so well.”
However, according to a press release shared by the streaming service in July 2022, Colin will be “disheartened to learn that Penelope, the one person who always appreciated him as he was, is giving him the cold shoulder.” He will go all out to try and win back her friendship — even trying to “boost her confidence so as to attract” the perfect husband. However, through all of his efforts, Colin will be forced to figure out “what his true feelings for his friend really are.”
With Penelope and Colin’s relationship now the centerpiece of season 3, Coughlan previously confessed that she was a bit intimidated to go from a supporting role to the new leading lady. “I mean, it’s exciting and terrifying,” the Irish actress told Digital Spy in March 2022. “I think because when I signed on to this show, because it’s based on the books, I knew that her love story was coming at some point, but it felt like a moment in the very distant future. And I know her love interest already, it’s Colin Bridgerton.”
She continued: “Luke and I, we used to joke about it all the time, and then it becomes progressively less funny and more intimidating as time goes on. [But] I’m really interested in how it’s gonna play out because she’s quite modern a lot of ways in that she, she’s a businesswoman. She’s super serious about her career, but she also wants the love she also wants the marriage she wants.”
Two months later, she echoed those sentiments while speaking with E! News, shortly after it was officially confirmed that her character would be at the center of season 3. “I’ve known for, like, two weeks into filming season 2, so I had a lot of time to adjust to it,” she said in May 2022, joking that being upgraded from a supporting character to leading lady was slightly “terrifying.”
“But then, you know, last night when they were like, ‘The news is coming out. You can talk about it,’ I was like, ‘I don’t want to. I’m too scared.’ When I say it out [loud], it makes it real,” Coughlan added.
Keep scrolling to see Coughlan and her costars’ best behind-the-scenes moments ahead of season 3: