Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan has opened up about feeling “excited and terrified” at the prospect of her Netflix character Penelope Featherington’s impending sex scenes on the show.
The Derry Girls fan favourite, 35, opened up about her character’s arc during the latest second season and beyond, as Netflix have renewed the hit Regency-era show for another two future instalments.
The Irish actress addressed the “exciting and terrifying” inevitability of her own love story and accompanying intimate scenes, given the nature of the show and the Julia Quinn novels it is based on.
She said: “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.”
Nicola said she’s already aware of her character Penelope’s love interest - Colin Bridgerton, played by her 29-year-old Luke Newton - and said she used to laugh about it with her co-star.
“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,” she said. “I'm really interested in how it's going to play out because she's quite modern in a lot of ways, in that she's a businesswoman.
“She's super serious about her career, but she also wants the love, she also wants the marriage.”
In terms of whether Nicola would let her family watch the raunchy scenes as and when they appear on the hit Netflix series in the future, the actress said she would request a “PG version” from producers.
She said: “I think I'm genuinely - and I'm not kidding - going to ask Shondaland for a special family friendly cut, because I just think it's embarrassing enough watching the scenes that I am not in there like that.”
She continued: “I think I'm going to put a special request in my contract to be like, can we just get one that's the PG version, maybe a little kiss and then we're good.
“Because I've read the book, so I know that it gets extremely racy in that scene. I already know stuff that's going to happen. It's intense.”
Asked what scene from the book she would like to appear in the Netflix show, Coughlan singled out one of the “racy scenes” in a carriage, noting it “sounds a weird answer”.
She added: “They're sort of arguing and then it all gets very romantic, shall we say, but I think it will be such a good scene in the show. It terrifies me to think of filming but I think it would be really great.”
The first and second seasons of Bridgerton are available to stream on Netflix.
