Nicola Coughlan plays Penelope Featherington, the youngest daughter in the Featherington family, in Netflix’s historical romance-drama Bridgerton. Coughlan’s character was portrayed as a reluctant debutante in Regency-era London. The Big Mood actress had several steamy scenes throughout the two seasons of the show. Since Coughlan’s family is Irish Catholic and would not be happy about these scenes in the series, the actress had a special clause written into her contract.
Bridgerton was created by Chris Van Dusen and produced by Shondaland for Netflix. The show’s second season broke Netflix records, ultimately leading to its renewal for third and fourth seasons. The third season will drop on the streaming platform in two parts this year.
Nicola Coughlan’s Unusual Contract Deal With Netflix For Her Parents’ Sake
Nicola Coughlan‘s Penelope Featherington and Luke Newton’s Colin Bridgerton had quite a few intimate scenes in Netflix’s Bridgerton. The third season is not going to be any different in terms of the steamy scenes. But they would definitely prove too much for Coughlan’s Irish Catholic parents. That is only if they get to watch those scenes.
Coughlan revealed in an interview with SiriusXM Hits 1 that she actually had it written into her contract that Netflix provide a PG version of the show for her family to watch (via The Independent). She made it clear that her family’s religious faith would be unwilling to accept her n*de scenes in the series. She added that people took the contract clause as a joke but that it was real. She shared in her interview:
“It’s literally written into my contract. People think I’m like saying it as a joke. I just don’t want to. I grew up Irish Catholic. That’s just not how we vibe.”
The Derry Girls actress also revealed how her mother was subjected to the unexpected sauciness of the series when she got to watch Jonathan Bailey‘s bare bottom in the first episode. Her mother was initially a little thrown off by the scene in the series, but Coughlan revealed that she eventually found the show really funny and fantastic. Coughlan shared:
“When she first saw Bridgerton, she didn’t know it was gonna be so saucy. And then you get a bottom, Jonathan Bailey’s lovely bottom, about two minutes into the first episode ever. And she was like, ‘What is this?’ But then, now she thinks it’s fantastic and really funny, and she keeps talking about bottoms.”
Bridgerton Season 2 set a Netflix record in its opening weekend by becoming the highest opening for any English-language series on the platform at the time (via THR). According to Deadline, the series also broke the record for the most viewed English-language Netflix series in a single week at the time. The series clocked 251.74 million viewing hours from March 28 to April 3, 2022.
Nicola Coughlan’s Intimate Scenes Only Get Spicier In Bridgerton Season 3
Nicola Coughlan should really keep her parents away from the unrated third season dropping next month. The series is expected to include more scenes centering around her character being courted by Colin Bridgerton. Coughlan told Entertainment Tonight that “a lot of the stuff from the books that the fans expect has made it into the show.” Notably, Bridgerton is based on the book series of the same name by Julia Quinn.
Coughlan even admitted to breaking a piece of furniture during one of her scenes with Luke Newton. She revealed in her SiriusXM interview that they were given a lot of say in how the intimate scenes were done. She felt empowered and the scenes turned out to be really enjoyable to film for the actors.
The third season of Bridgerton will premiere in two parts, with the first one dropping on May 16 and the second part releasing on June 13.
