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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 Page and Jonathan Bailey and entering into the position of a co-lead — or chief hunk.
“I really feel barely overwhelmed,” Newton, 31, stated in a current interview, including that he was solely simply beginning to admire the tasks of being a “Bridgerton” lead, reasonably than a co-star.
After watching each Page and Bailey navigate profitable seasons and, later, careers in Hollywood, Newton requested each actors for recommendation. Page simply urged he take a trip as quickly because the season wrapped, Newton stated, however Bailey — who continues to play Anthony, Colin’s older brother, in Season 3 — was round to help him all through. “Whatever stress there was, no matter state of affairs, I might simply name him,” Newton stated.
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 stated. But he wasn’t apprehensive about how his co-star would deal with the identical shift: He stated Newton might take care of the “absurd” nature of a sudden rush of fame.
“Bridgerton,” which is predicated on a collection 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 method to intimacy onscreen.
In the third season, many 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 season spent touring showing “quietly assured,” Newton stated, however solely Penelope can see that this newfound confidence is “a little bit of a present.”
Colin additionally gained some muscle, which Newton stated 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 completely different from these of earlier seasons, Newton stated. Colin is “delicate and compassionate,” he stated, in comparison with the womanizing male characters who’ve beforehand led the present.
Coughlan, who referred to as Newton “a really caring particular person,” stated that “lots of the beautiful components of Colin Bridgerton are additionally the beautiful components of Luke Newton.” Filming intercourse scenes was all the time 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 plenty of of his relations have been concerned within the performing arts. He determined he needed to behave after seeing two aunts seem collectively onstage in “Les Misérables” when he was 6, he stated. Newton attended novice dramatic teams and lower his tooth in kids’s tv and stage appearing, earlier than finding out theater in school and briefly becoming a member of a boy band.
Early on, Newton stated he thought-about a profession in musical theater over display work, as a result of he has dyslexia and ADHD, which have an effect on his skill to learn scripts. “If I’m studying one thing I wrestle with, I simply get distracted,” he stated.
In 2018, when he auditioned to to play the Duke of Hastings in “Bridgerton” — the half Page finally received — Newton stated he had struggled to grasp the script’s mix of up to date and interval components. But he despatched in an audition tape anyway. “I used to be fortunate sufficient that they noticed one thing,” he stated: finally, he was provided the position of Colin.
At the time, Newton hadn’t booked an appearing gig for some time, and he was working in a bar and residing on a good friend’s couch mattress after a breakup. “When you come from a spot of being an unemployed actor for thus a few years,” the present’s potential for a long term was an enormous consolation, Newton stated. Three seasons in, Newton stated “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 Shape of Things.” He hoped to do extra theater sooner or later, he stated, and to work on a movie that tells a personality’s “complete story.”
Newton stated he hopes to “take a step again” from the highlight for Season 4. The actors taking part in the Bridgerton siblings have a bunch chat, and whichever of them takes the reins, Newton stated he plans on supporting them nevertheless he can. He referred to as it “returning the favor.”
