Luke Newton is but to expertise what it means to be a “Bridgerton” main man, however he has been making an attempt to arrange himself.
He has performed Colin Bridgerton on the ornate, sexually charged Netflix present for 2 seasons, however for the third — which premieres on Thursday — Newton is following within the footsteps of Regé-Jean Web page and Jonathan Bailey and moving into the position of a co-lead — or chief hunk.
“I really feel barely overwhelmed,” Newton, 31, mentioned in a latest interview, including that he was solely simply beginning to recognize the tasks of being a “Bridgerton” lead, slightly than a co-star.
After watching each Web page and Bailey navigate profitable seasons and, later, careers in Hollywood, Newton requested each actors for recommendation. Web page simply urged he take a trip as quickly because the season wrapped, Newton mentioned, however Bailey — who continues to play Anthony, Colin’s older brother, in Season 3 — was round to assist him all through. “No matter stress there was, no matter state of affairs, I may simply name him,” Newton mentioned.
After the final season aired, Bailey’s standing — each as a star and a intercourse image — skyrocketed, resulting in an “extraordinary change” in his life, Bailey mentioned. However he wasn’t nervous about how his co-star would deal with the identical shift: He mentioned Newton may cope with the “absurd” nature of a sudden rush of fame.
“Bridgerton,” which relies on a sequence of novels by the writer Julia Quinn, follows eight siblings as they pine for love and reckon with relationships in early-Nineteenth-century London. The present, produced by Shonda Rhimes, has been praised each for its inclusive casting and uncooked strategy to intimacy onscreen.
Within the third season, a lot of the intimacy develops between the longtime associates Colin and Penelope (a bashful debutante performed by Nicola Coughlan), who fall for one another.
Early within the season, Colin returns from a summer time spent touring showing “quietly assured,” Newton mentioned, however solely Penelope can see that this newfound confidence is “a little bit of a present.”
Colin additionally gained some muscle, which Newton mentioned was extra about portraying the character’s progress whereas overseas than taking part in to his personal ego as he ready to shoot the season’s intercourse scenes.
Being “Bridgerton,” nudity stays a part of the deal, however the romantic story line between Colin and Penelope is totally different from these of earlier seasons, Newton mentioned. Colin is “delicate and compassionate,” he mentioned, in comparison with the womanizing male characters who’ve beforehand led the present.
Coughlan, who referred to as Newton “a really caring particular person,” mentioned that “a number of the stunning elements of Colin Bridgerton are additionally the stunning elements of Luke Newton.” Filming intercourse scenes was at all times nerve-racking, she added, however when she was recording these with Newton, she felt “like he actually had my again.”
Newton grew up close to Brighton, on the southern coast of England, and lots of of his members of the family had been concerned within the performing arts. He determined he wished to behave after seeing two aunts seem collectively onstage in “Les Misérables” when he was 6, he mentioned. Newton attended newbie dramatic teams and lower his enamel in kids’s tv and stage performing, earlier than finding out theater at school and briefly becoming a member of a boy band.
Early on, Newton mentioned he thought-about a profession in musical theater over display screen work, as a result of he has dyslexia and ADHD, which have an effect on his capability to learn scripts. “If I’m studying one thing I wrestle with, I simply get distracted,” he mentioned.
In 2018, when he auditioned to to play the Duke of Hastings in “Bridgerton” — the half Web page finally bought — Newton mentioned he had struggled to grasp the script’s mix of latest and interval parts. However he despatched in an audition tape anyway. “I used to be fortunate sufficient that they noticed one thing,” he mentioned: finally, he was supplied the position of Colin.
On the time, Newton hadn’t booked an performing gig for some time, and he was working in a bar and residing on a pal’s couch mattress after a breakup. “Whenever you come from a spot of being an unemployed actor for therefore a few years,” the present’s potential for a future was an enormous consolation, Newton mentioned. Three seasons in, Newton mentioned “Bridgerton” had “modified how I work, and the way a lot I wish to dive into one thing.”
After Season 3 wrapped, Newton returned to the stage for the primary time in additional than 5 years, in a manufacturing of Neil LaBute’s romantic drama “The Form of Issues.” He hoped to do extra theater sooner or later, he mentioned, and to work on a movie that tells a personality’s “complete story.”
Newton mentioned he hopes to “take a step again” from the highlight for Season 4. The actors taking part in the Bridgerton siblings have a gaggle chat, and whichever of them takes the reins, Newton mentioned he plans on supporting them nevertheless he can. He referred to as it “returning the favor.”
