Bridgerton’s Luke Newton and Nicola Coughlan discuss that mirror scene

“They’re sneaky, they seem like little sweeties … but they’re always breaking rules,” said Nicola Coughlan.

Bridgerton stars Luke Newton and Nicola Coughlan talk about how their characters deviate from societal norms as season three unfolds.

In the fifth episode of the Regency romance series, Newton's Colin Bridgerton and Coughlan's Penelope Featherington share an intimate moment that challenges societal rules. 

The episode continues from the suspenseful fourth episode of the season, which premiered on May 16. As the storyline progresses, viewers witness the newly betrothed Penelope and Colin sharing an intimate moment, during which Colin expresses his love for Penelope for the first time. 

Subsequently, Colin admires Penelope's appearance in a full-length mirror before the couple consummates their relationship, defying the societal norm of waiting until after marriage.

“They’re constantly breaking rules,” Coughlan told TheWrap of the characters’ first rendezvous. “They’re sneaky, they seem like little sweeties … but they’re always breaking rules.”

“They both love that — Colin is a big rule breaker, they like to break the rules,” Newton added. “Something about that era as well — the danger of it — makes it quite sexy — being forbidden. But I think, at that moment, they’re so in love that everything else...”

“Everything washes away,” Coughlan concluded. “The world doesn’t matter in that moment.”

"We just wanted to honor that because people have a lot of love for their relationship, and we wanted to keep it really true to that,” Newton added.