BY THE TIME Luke Newton found out he’d be starring in the third season of Netflix’s racy Regency-era drama Bridgerton, he was already itching for his leading man era. Now 31 years old, he’d been cast at 26 after starring in a couple of British teen shows, and his character on Bridgerton began as another boyish archetype. The show is based on a series of romance novels that each follow the courtship of a different child in the fictional Bridgerton family. Newton plays Colin, the third son, who begins as a Pollyannaish dreamer before leaving to travel through Europe on an 1800s version of study abroad—and returning all glowed up like the kid at school who got hot over summer break.
While Colin is at the center of the fourth book, he got bumped up in the rotation a season early. Newton had already started switching up his fitness routine and diet as part of his plan to level up his life, and the new scripts featuring much ado about Colin’s transformation gave him added motivation. (The word “sturdy” featured prominently.) When the first half of the season debuted last month, viewers were eager to see him step into the same spotlight that insta-heartthrobs Jonathan Bailey and Regé-Jean Page occupied in previous seasons. Not only did he deliver, but he and costar Nicola Coughlin set a new benchmark of their own during their press tour with how much fans adored their winning chemistry. (Coughlin, who discerning viewers already loved in Derry Girls, plays Penelope Featherington, a wallflower who’s secretly her era’s Gossip Girl, trolling her fellow society types in a gossip sheet written under the pen name Lady Whistledown.)
Ahead of Part 2 of the season’s drop on Netflix, Newton reacts to the early response, how he and Coughlin prepped for their turn shooting steamy sex scenes, and speculates on which Bridgerton brother will break the internet next.
MEN’S HEALTH: How did appearing on Bridgerton‘s first two seasons prepare you to play the lead in Season 3?
LUKE NEWTON: I got to watch my big bro Jonathan Bailey last season. I knew that I was next, which wasn’t announced at that point, and I got to watch how he navigated it all—not only in terms of being a leading man in the story, but also being a leading man on set. Jonny has been there every step of the way. It’s nice knowing that you can turn to someone who’s been through it and has that shared experience.
MH: Fans of the show, and especially fans of the books, were really invested in Colin and Penelope’s story. How did you and Nicola Coughlin approach that?
LN: Well, we got to work on our friendship first, just as actors. It’s been five years since we started the show, so we were able to play the long game for the story. Audiences are aware of their relationship [in the books] and support it and want them together on screen. So we don’t have to try and sell it. The audience is already backing it.
After three seasons, Newton and Coughlin complete their characters’ friends-to-lovers storyline.
MH: Did you do a chemistry test when you first got cast years ago, knowing that your characters would eventually get together?
LN: We actually didn’t, which is a testament to the casting team. Nicola was cast before I was—she was in costume fittings before I’d even been offered the role. One day, she went in for a fitting and someone pointed to a new casting photo on the wall and said, ‘This is Luke. He’s going to be playing [Colin] opposite you.’ But it was a picture of Luke Thompson, who had just been cast as Benedict. So she Googled him, and did all this research into him, and then the day she met me, she said, ‘You’re not him!’
MH: What if you ended up hating each other?
LN: I can’t imagine. That’s the thing: I can’t imagine having this experience with anyone else.
MH: Part 2 of the season features a famous sex scene from the books, which isn’t something you or Nicola have had to shoot until this season. How’d it go?
LN: Initially, I thought it was going to be more uncomfortable. In your head, you imagine getting undressed in front of one of your close friends and then simulating sex with them, and of course you imagine it’ll be really awkward. But we actually felt really comfortable because there was already a sensitivity from knowing each other through all these years—not just as Luke and Nic, but as the characters. Because their story is a friends-to-lovers story, there needs to be that history between them. And because of our friendship and our rapport on set, each of us could predict how the other person was going to play it, so there was more trust there.
You do selfishly think, How am I going to look on camera? But I didn’t really think about that too much—until this funny moment when I was wearing my intimacy garment, which is just like a sock with a cup on it, sort of taped on you up in the front, and I saw myself in the mirror and started laughing. I had a robe on, so I went to Nic and said, ‘Nic, I need to show you this before we do a take, because you’ll just laugh at me, and it won’t be this romantic, sexy scene anymore.’ So I showed her and we had a bit of a giggle. Then when we actually did have to do the reveal on set, we were trying to suppress those giggles. In the end, it was actually fun. The production allowed us the time we needed. I think we shot one of those scenes over three days. And it’s quite a short scene—five minutes, maybe. But having that luxury meant there was no pressure. No ‘let’s go, let’s get on with it, let’s get to the next scene.’ It felt surprisingly relaxed.
MH: Three seasons in, I suppose you at least had some sense of what you were in store for.
LN: I rewatched Season 1 the other day because I’ve been doing a lot of press, and wanted to reference it. I haven’t watched it since it came out in 2020. And I realized just how intimate and sexy the show has been since the beginning. I don’t know what the conversation was with previous leads, but by the time it got to me and Nic, that was a staple. Now we all know it’s going to be quite steamy. And this season, those moments also feel really exposed and open and honest too. Because it’s about Penelope’s sexual awakening; she’s experiencing all this for the first time. So it felt important to the story, which made things a bit easier too.
MH: What did you see as the essential elements of these scenes to the story your season is telling?
LN: We explore themes of consent in the love scenes, which feel really intimate and gentle but still super sexy. Normally in Regency [romance] it’s aggressive and passionate, but I love that these scenes are full of consent and consideration, while still being really passionate. I think it strikes such a good balance.
MH: Your character had a transformation this season, which, by the looks of it, you’ve really embraced.
LN: When I finished Season 2, I wanted to make a change in my lifestyle regardless of what the story was going to be. Partly because I had now experienced what it took to be on set five, six days a week, for eight, nine months, and I saw how training can help keep your energy up. And partly because at that point, it felt like the right time in my life and my career to make those changes. I felt like I was getting older and going from these roles where I was playing a young boy to playing a man. And then I started getting the scripts for this season, and one of the first references [to Colin’s transformation] was when Benedict says, ‘Under what foreign sun did you apparently get so sturdy?’
That immediately gave me a little insight into how there needs to be some sort of physical difference to the character. So the timing all kind of aligned. I was ready for the challenge.
MH: How do you approach that while also keeping a healthy and sustainable attitude towards it all? I imagine you can only be in so many scenes about your character’s glow-up without developing a complex about it, you know?
LN: Yeah, I know what you mean. But once I started, I really just loved it. I’d train every day after shooting—I wasn’t going to get up at three in the morning to go to the gym, because we’d get picked up at four or five to go to set. So I would wrap in the evening, get dropped off at the gym, and that became my routine for resetting after the day. It gave me that extra bit of mental clarity.
MH: What do you think will excite viewers about watching Part 2 of the season?
LN: When I initially finished watching Part 1, even after filming it and living that experience, it still appeared like there’s really only one obstacle left, which is that Penelope is Whistledown. You think everything will be happily ever after once they resolve that. But actually, the writing team has done so well to keep throwing obstacles in the way so the story doesn’t sit even for a couple of minutes.
MH: Without spoiling too much, Luke Thompson’s character, Benedict, has a great arc.
LN: It’s so interesting, Benedict’s story this season. Part 2, for him, gets exciting and sets up so much for the future. And I know Jess [Brownell], our showrunner, has so many plans not only for Benedict, but for other characters. The Bridgerton universe is going to be expanding and getting even more interesting every season.
MH: The show has a very large female viewership, but I suspect the male viewership is bigger than we think, one way or another. Do you ever get recognized by dudes out in public?
LN: After Season 2 [of Bridgerton], I had season tickets for the football team I support, Brighton, and at the games a lot of older men would come up and say, ‘My wife watches your show!’ And I’d be like, ‘Why do you recognize me, then?’ I’m just part of the ensemble in Seasons 1 and 2, so they’ve obviously watched in enough detail to recognize me! So there’s definitely been a little bit of that.
The show is mostly told through the female perspective—it’s about their sexual awakenings, fighting against the rules of society. But we have strong leading men with interesting storylines. And there’s so much more to them this season, particularly with Benedict, with us expanding the world and showing different kinds of characters that will resonate with people.
MH: The internet has been freaking out over the realization that Nicola is 37 years old and so convincingly passing for someone in their early 20s. Have you seen all those reactions and memes?
LN: Oh I know, I saw that. When we were at the London junket for Part 1 of the season, that was all over the internet. It was amazing. It’s weird, in my head, we’re all the same age as when we started the show, but obviously a good five-plus years have passed, and our characters haven’t really aged all that much. So now the gap is even bigger. We do always joke about it on set. Claudia [Jessie, who at 34 plays Newton’s younger sister] always says, ‘We’re gonna be here ’til we’re 60, babes.’
The interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.