Editor’s note: This post contains spoilers from Season 3, Episode 5 of “Bridgerton.”
To no one’s surprise and everyone’s delight, the first song that played on the red carpet for the “Bridgerton” Season 3 – Part 2 premiere in London June 12 was the orchestral cover of Pitbull’s “Give Me Everything.”
Back on May 16, the Regency romance closed out Season 3 Part 1 by underscoring Season 3 leads Nicola Coughlan and Luke Newton’s climactic carriage scene with a string arrangement of Mr. Worldwide’s 2011 dance floor banger. Once the song ended, so began the wait for Part 2 amid an inexorable cycle of rewatching, dissecting, lusting, longing and scrolling — a self-inflicted torture that fans could not, would not and did not want to give up.
Flash forward to Wednesday, when some of Netflix’s dearest gentle viewers convened at the Leicester Square Odeon for an early screening of Episode 5 taking place just hours before the back half of Season 3 was scheduled to come off the shelf. And who better than Pitbull to herald the moment?
For all the titters “Give Me Everything” may have initially inspired as the soundtrack to that especially, ahem, handsy carriage ride, the song has proven a fitting anthem for the stars of “Bridgerton,” who consistently told IndieWire at the premiere that meeting fans has been a highlight of this season.
Leading up to this week’s event, Coughlan and Newton spent nearly six months traveling the globe promoting “Bridgerton.” Between stops in Australia, Brazil, Toronto and even Coughlan’s hometown of Galway, Ireland, their co-stars fanned out from Johannesburg (a “fabulous” favorite of Adjoa Andoh, who plays Lady Agatha Danbury) to Warsaw, Poland. Luke Thompson, who plays Benedict Bridgerton, considered Coughlan and Newton’s world tour “a proper endurance test,” and Victor Alli (a.k.a. John Stirling, Lord Kilmartin) described the experience as an “intense, but … nice roller coaster.”
At the tour’s grand finale on Wednesday, Newton acknowledged that his and Coughlan’s journey to Polin season reaches back even beyond this year’s travels or the eight months of filming in 2022 and 2023. “It feels like we’re not only celebrating this season,” he said. “It feels like — because of Colin and Pen’s journey — we’re celebrating, like, five years of this story. You know, we saw them as the awkward two at the start of a ball that did a jig, and now you’re gonna see them in all their glory in front of the mirror.”
And, whew, does that mirror moment deliver. Episode 5 does not delay very long (14 minutes, specifically, but who’s counting?) before giving fans the famous scene between Coughlan’s Penelope Featherington and her now-fiancé Colin Bridgerton (Newton). Taking up more than seven minutes of screen time, the intimate encounter — which was first laid out in Julia Quinn’s 2002 novel “Romancing Mr. Bridgerton” — features Colin professing his love explicitly to Penelope, leading her to a mirror where he compliments and caresses her so that she might see the beauty in herself that he sees in her, and finally tenderly talking her through her first full sexual experience.
The screening room undulated from awwwws to woos, occasionally dissolving into laughter, including when a naive Pen asks Colin, “Is there more?” as he seeks her consent to fully consummate their relationship. (Sweet virginal Pen, she thought the carriage was as good as it could get!) No surprise, the crowd also expelled a naughty chuckle at hearing Pen ask immediately after the deed: “Can we do it again?”
And part of the secret of Season 3’s success is that “Bridgerton” devotees have, indeed, wanted to do it again… and again — clocking 2.3 billion viewing minutes in the first week of release alone (Newton recently admitted he wonders how many of those minutes were racked up by the carriage scene alone).
Hannah New, who plays seductive newcomer Lady Tilley Arnold, told IndieWire at Wednesday’s premiere that she thinks fans have been especially activated this season because of Couhglan’s “magnetism” as a performer. “When she plays a character, she really does put everything into it…. She’s very committed to her work, she gives it 110% and she’s just a beautiful person to be around. I can’t say how blessed and lucky we are to have her as our leading lady.”
According to Kathryn Drysdale, whose Madame Delacroix was responsible for Penelope’s attention-grabbing Parisian glow-up in Part 1, Coughlan is “such a charismatic and intelligent woman. She really brings a lot to the character of Penelope, and I think it’s beautiful seeing her work grow, the character grow. I think a lot of people can see themselves in Penelope.”
Executive Producer Betsy Beers, whose partnership with Shonda Rhimes was instrumental in ushering “Bridgerton” from page to screen, also praised Newton as a leading man on and off screen. “Luke never fails to have a smile. He’s warm, he’s kind,” she told IndieWire. Beers added of Newton and Coughlan: “They’re such incredible ambassadors for ‘Bridgerton’ in the world.”
There was no clearer sign of fans’ embrace than on Wednesday night when they broke into an impromptu a cappella serenade of Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colors,” a song both Coughlan and Newton have cited as an inspiration for Polin’s friends-to-lovers arc.
Florence Hunt, who plays youngest Bridgerton sibling Hyacinth, said one of the best parts of “Bridgerton” (which tells a new couple’s love story each season) is witnessing her costars “get their moment, and we [as co-stars] get to see them take that moment. Nic and Luke have done the most incredible job, I’m in awe of them.”
Before the screening, Coughlan summed up what it has felt like leading this season of “Bridgerton,” which is on track to join Seasons 1 and 2 on the list of Netflix’s Top 10 shows ever. “I’m gonna take a real stab in the dark and say I will never experience anything like this ever again,” she said.
“It’s really special to be part of a show that celebrates love and joy and diversity. And we are so grateful,” she added. “We had no idea when we started this show four or five years ago that it would be this. And that we get to share it with you all — it’s been the privilege of our lives.”
“Bridgerton” Season 3 is now streaming in full on Netflix.