Nicola Coughlan's Bridgerton contract includes a cut of the show she can watch with her mom

Bridgerton. Nicola Coughlan as Penelope Featherington in episode 302 of Bridgerton. Cr. Laurence Cendrowicz/Netflix © 2023
Bridgerton. Nicola Coughlan as Penelope Featherington in episode 302 of Bridgerton. Cr. Laurence Cendrowicz/Netflix © 2023

Everyone's gearing up for the Bridgerton season 3 release since it's only a month away. The amazing cast is even out promoting it. In fact, one of the show's leading stars this season, Nicola Coughlan, shared some surprising information in a recent interview. We shared everything she said below.

Bridgerton is easily the best period drama on Netflix, and there's just no debating that. With every new season, viewers fall in love with the two main leads and the love story that plays out between their characters. This season, Nicola Coughlan, who plays Penelope Featherington, aka Lady Whistledown, is one of the leading stars, and she and Luke Newton's characters' love story will be told. Yes, we'll finally see Penelope and Colin get together for all the Polin shippers.

In the first two seasons of the popular period drama, we see Penelope pretty much pine for Colin while Colin is oblivious to her affection for him. But in the highly anticipated third season, something eventually snaps in Colin, and he starts to see Penelope in a completely different way. No longer does he see her as a caring and loving friend. He sees her as a potential wife, but it might be too late as Penelope is actively looking for a husband on the marriage mart.

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Bridgerton. (L to R) Luke Newton as Colin Bridgerton, Nicola Coughlan as Penelope Featherington in episode 302 of Bridgerton. Cr. Liam Daniel/Netflix © 2023

Like previous seasons, you can expect there to be several racy scenes in Bridgerton season 3 once things start heating up between Penelope and Colin. Some viewers might want to watch these scenes away from family because it can get pretty awkward. And it looks like Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan can relate because she shared in a new interview that she receives an alternate cut of episodes that do not include these types of scenes just so she can show her parents.

How does she get this privilege, you ask? Well, it's all in her contract with Netflix and Shondaland. She stated this in an interview on SiriusXM Hits 1. Coughlan mentioned that not only do the alternate episodes not include the mature scenes, but the language is also tamed down.

Here's what Coughlan had to say about the alternate cut of episodes via Variety:

"It’s literally written into my contract. People think I’m saying it as a joke. I just don’t want to … We grew up Irish Catholic. That’s just not how we vibe."
Nicola Coughlan

In the same interview, Coughlan also shared her mom's opinions of the show when she first watched it. She said that her mom didn't know the show was going to be "saucy," but then she got to the scene where Jonathan Bailey's butt is shown, and she was shocked. However, she says that her mom now thinks the show is "fantastic and really funny."

We can't wait to see Coughlan reprise her role as Penelope/Lady Whistledown in Bridgerton season 3, premiering on Netflix on May 16.