With the series having gained a reputation for featuring its fair share of steamy scenes since the very beginning, Bridgerton fans have become accustomed to expecting wanton acts of passion in the Netflix smash hit.
In the recently-released third season, that particular spotlight fell firmly upon Nicola Coughlan’s Penelope Featherington and Luke Newton’s Colin Bridgerton. The sign of any potential romance being accepted by a captive audience can often be measured in whether or not the would-be couple are popular enough to earn a portmanteau, and it would be fair to say the pair dubbed ‘Polin’ have achieved it.
Coughlan has already spoken of her determination to seize the opportunity presented by season 3 allowing her to “shine” in one of the most pivotal roles of the latest episodes, and it’s one she seized with both hands. This being Bridgerton, of course, the discourse has once again been dominated by one of the show’s signature scenes of steaminess.
In this instance, Penelope and Colin give in to their inhibitions and get it on in a moving carriage, although there’s plenty of character-driven drama to be mined before the two get down to business. As the pair explained, they felt a huge amount of pressure knowing what the scene meant to both them as performers, the show itself, and its legion of supporters.
Speaking to Netflix, Coughlan admitted there was “big pressure” for both her and Newton, and a lot of it was down to their awareness of what the fandom wanted to see. “The fans are horny little devils,” she said. “And they used to send us pictures of carriages constantly, and carriages rocking.”
As a result, the actor knew the scene in question “has to be both beautiful, touching, romantic, and sexy, which is a lot of things.” The stage was already set when they kissed previously in season three, but from Penelope’s perspective, Coughlan shared that the character couldn’t have imagined that a romp in a carriage would be the next port of call.
“In her mind after the kiss, she’s messed it up completely and she’s like, ‘He will never fancy me. He doesn’t fancy me. It’s embarrassing. I’m going to move on,'” she continued. “There’s no part of her when he gets in that carriage that thinks anything like this is going to happen.” Not to put too fine a point on it, but something definitely did happen, and the Bridgerton viewership couldn’t have been more thrilled about it.
