Nicola Coughlan. Picture: Bang Showbiz
Nicola Coughlan felt a lot more comfortable with her 'Bridgerton' sex scenes in the new season.
The 37-year-old actress plays Penelope Featherington in the steamy Netflix period drama, and she has reflected on how filming sex scenes with her Luke Newton, who plays her on-screen lover Colin Bridgerton, has changed over the years.
She told UK's Closer magazine: "I've been super lucky having Luke from season one all the way up to now.
"At the beginning it was really intimidating, but because there's trust - 'I know you got me, I got you' - it was like, 'Let's do this'.
"It was special and I had a moment where I was like, 'Oh my God, we really are the romantic leads of the season.' "
The 'Big Mood' and 'Derry Girls' star has enjoyed seeing a different side to Penelope as her character has developed.
She added: "I really loved getting to play the humorous side to her, because I always feel she's going through so much stuff - so to actually get to play how goofy she is, and how unable she is to speak to men, was so much fun."
Because of Nicola's upbringing, she has it "written into [her] contract" that her mother will see the episodes with her racy scenes cut out.
Speaking on SiriusXM Hits 1 last month, she explained: "It’s literally written into my contract. People think I’m saying it as a joke.
"I just don’t want to … We grew up Irish Catholic. That’s just not how we vibe. When she first saw ‘Bridgerton,’ she didn’t know it was going to be 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."
Meanwhile, Nicola and Luke have benefited from their "amazing intimacy co-ordinator" on set.
She previously told UK TV show 'This Morning': "It was worse at the beginning and better in reality because we could have a laugh about it.
"We had an amazing intimacy co-ordinator. It's like a stunt coordinator for sexy scenes.
"Luke and I had a lot of say in what we wanted to do and how we wanted things to play out."
BANG Showbiz