Nicola Coughlan has admitted she’s “terrified” about her Bridgerton sex scenes.
The Irish actress plays Penelope Featherington in the popular Netflix, who has had a secret crush on Colin Bridgerton (played by Luke Newton) since season one.
Penelope and Colin’s romance doesn’t play out until the fourth season of the period drama, but Nicola is already bracing herself for her “racy” scenes.
Speaking to RTÉ Entertainment, the Galway native joked: “I honestly am going to ask Shondaland for a special family friendly cut because it’s embarrassing enough watching the racy scenes I’m not in so I’m going to put a special request in in my contract for a PG version.”
“There’s a scene in a carriage and Penelope and Colin are sort of arguing but then it gets very romantic. It would be such a great scene in the show but the thought of filming it terrifies me.”
“A little kiss and we’re good. I’ve read the books and I know that scene gets very racy. I was in a show prior to this called Harlots and I played a harlot, and my mother has never seen that show, not one scene!”
Nicola continued: “I signed on to this show and because it’s based on the books, I knew that [Penelope’s] love story was coming but it felt like a moment in the very distant future and I know who her love interest is already – it’s Colin Bridgerton.”
“Luke, who plays Colin, and I used to joke about it all the time, but it becomes less funny and more intimidating as time goes on.”
“I’m really interested to see how it plays out for Penelope. She’s quite modern in a lot of ways. She’s a businesswoman and it super serious about her career but she also wants the love, she also wants the marriage, she wants a bit of everything, so I’m really interested to see how that plays out.”
Speaking about the lack of sex scenes in season two, Nicola explained: “Season one was a lot about Daphne and her discovering her sexuality whereas this time it’s about a forbidden relationship, so it needed more time.”
“There are not as many sex scenes, but it does have intimacy in it, and it wouldn’t make sense to repeat the same formula of season one because there are different characters and a different story and it’s the nature of the beast that next year it will be a different love story again and I have a feeling that next year is going to be extremely racy!”
