Parents are complicated on the best of days. And when you star on a show like Bridgerton — a worldwide phenomenon, for sure, but also a show bound to have racy scenes, well …parents are a concern for a different reason. That’s what happened to Season 3 leading lady Nicola Coughlan.
But she didn’t just tell her parents to skip the scenes, no. Coughlan went further, making sure her contract states that Netflix and Shondaland must provide a PG version of Bridgerton she can show her family.
“It’s literally written into my contract,” the actress said in an interview on SiriusXM Hits 1. “People think I’m like saying it as a joke. I just don’t want to. I grew up Irish Catholic. That’s just not how we vibe.”
And this is all because of Jonathan Bailey’s butt. Coughlan recalled her mother’s first time watching the show, and how “she didn’t know it was gonna be so 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, and she keeps talking about bottoms.”
But her daughter probably wants to save mom from having to see her bottom. So PG version it is. And, considering Coughlan has spoken about how she and co-star Luke Newton literally broke a piece of furniture during one of those aforementioned saucy scenes, that’s probably for the best.
Bridgerton Season 3 will premiere in 2 parts, with the first part available on May 16th and the second part available on June 13th, all on Netflix.