Nicola Coughlan, best known for her role as Penelope Featherington in Netflix's Bridgerton, has shared a humorous yet relatable anecdote about her mother’s reaction to the intimate scenes she filmed for the show’s third season. Appearing on The Graham Norton Show, Coughlan revealed, “My mother was so mad at me about those scenes — as if they were my fault! So, I didn’t go to the screening with her.”

In the third season, Bridgerton delves into the friends-to-lovers storyline between Penelope and Colin Bridgerton, played by Luke Newton. Taking on a more mature role was a shift for Coughlan, who quipped, “I realised I was 35 when I was filming the season, and I’d never played an adult. [In] the first two series, I looked a lot like SpongeBob SquarePants — curly ginger hair, yellow dress, sort of a tent situation going on.”

Acknowledging the steamy nature of the show, she admitted, “It’s a sexy show. A lot of sexy things happen in it, and then I realised I was going to have to do the sexy things and I was like, ‘Right.’”

Coughlan also revealed her creative input on the season’s intimacy scenes, notably the daring mirror scene inspired by Julia Quinn’s novels. Speaking to Stylist earlier this year, she said, “There’s one scene where I’m very naked on camera, and that was my idea, my choice. It felt like the biggest ‘fuck you’ to all the conversation surrounding my body. It was amazingly empowering. I felt beautiful in the moment and thought, ‘When I’m 80, I want to look back on this and remember how fucking hot I looked!’”