This Bridgerton Season 3 Naked Scene Was Nicola Coughlan's Idea

LIAM DANIEL/NETFLIX

The first half of Bridgerton season 3 has finally premiered on Netflix and the whole world is focused on Penelope Featherington and Colin Bridgerton's chemistry, the two characters portrayed by Nicola Coughlan and Luke Newton, whose friends-to-lovers story takes center stage this season.

If you've already watched the first four episodes, then you'd know there's no shortage of steamy and naked scenes, and one of them, in particular, we have Coughlan to thank for.

In a new interview with British magazine Stylist, Coughlan opened up about working with the show's intimacy coordinator, Lizzy Talbot, to make her nude scenes as poignant as they could be this season, which resulted in her explicitly asking to be "very naked" on camera.

"I specifically asked for certain lines and moments to be included," Coughlan explained. “There's one scene where I'm very naked on camera, and that was my idea, my choice. It just felt like the biggest 'f*ck you' to all the conversation surrounding my body; it was amazingly empowering.”

Coughlan continued saying she felt "felt beautiful in the moment," added: “I thought: 'When I'm 80, I want to look back on this and remember how f*cking hot I looked!'”

Despite being her absolute confidence now, Coughlan has also opened up about her reservations while filming scenes that required little to no clothes, in particular, the sex scene with Luke Newton.

In her cover story with Teen Vogue, Coughlan already admitted that while filming sex scenes for Bridgerton, actors wear "not even real clothes" as intimacy wear. She further opened up about it to the LA Times ahead of season three's premiere, admitting that said intimacy wear was but a strapless thong. Of course, the first time she tried it on, she panicked.

"I went to the bathroom and looked in the full-length mirror. I was like, 'Absolutely not.' I hid it down the bottom of the laundry basket," Coughlan recounted. "I was like, 'How am I going to do this?'"

Related: How Bridgerton Costumer Turned Wallflower Penelope Into a Diamond

Ultimately, not only did she do it but, dare we say it, she even enjoyed it. "It's really funny," the actor told Teen Vogue about her 180 back in the April cover, addressing reports that she and Newton even lounged naked between filming scenes. "It is a testament to the fact that we just got to a point where we were so comfortable together. We'd just finished the big sex scene, the most intense and involved one…. and we just felt relieved."

Newton also opened up about filming naked scenes with Coughlan to Teen Vogue, saying: “Having shot scenes both with Nicola and with actors that I would perhaps meet on the day, I think a lot of people would think it's better not to know the person, but I actually think having a really solid friendship with someone and trusting someone is a lot easier.”

Newton added that the two actors "could support each other in whatever way each other needed on set and also just have a laugh about it."

That said, even after taking it all in stride, Coughlan requested a PG version of the show to watch with her family, which Newton is also contemplating. "I think I'll jump on that and say, 'If I can get that for my Nan, that would be great.' Because I can't bear to think of her watching," the star told Teen Vogue.

Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue

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