Bridgerton’s Luke Newton Details His Physical Transformation for Season 3 Lead
Becoming a Man Was Luke Newton’s Goal Ahead of His Season.
How Did He Get So Strong for Bridgerton’s Third Season?
His character Colin Bridgerton “changed and became a man,” Luke explained in People’s Sexiest Man Alive 2024 issue published Nov. 14. “I wanted to show that physically.”
After all, the third eldest Bridgerton brother is finally ready to find lasting love with his longtime friend Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan). While getting a muscular physique is essential to directing the Netflix series, he’s also taking cues from his older on-screen brother Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) for his sideburns.
“We’re very, very proud of that,” he exclaimed. “We spent hours and hours really working on those things, finding the exact shape, the lines that we wanted. For me, I guess I was inspired by Jonathan Bailey from last season, the way he had these big sideburns that looked really nice and trimmed, and I really wanted that. It was fun to explore that.”
There are downsides to that particular look, though.
“The only thing is that in normal life, it doesn’t really go with anything,” Luke joked. “If I’m in a coffee shop on a Sunday morning, you can spot a Bridgerton a mile away if you see those curls!”
Despite being ready for the physical transformation that came with his role in season three, there were a lot of things he didn’t realize. For example, there was an emotional day on set when Colin learned that Penelope was the town gossip columnist Lady Whistledown.
“I had absolutely no idea that was coming this season,” he told E! News in a joint interview with Nicola earlier this year. “When I read that, I knew that was the thing that was going to crush him the most. Out of everyone in the Bridgerton world, he was the one that was going to be hurt the most by this.”
“I remember that day, we shot it in so many different ways,” the 31-year-old actor continued. “Initially, it was meant to be quite harsh and angry. And then with the history of the roles that we’ve played over the years, it got really emotional. And I remember crying my eyes out.”
But he’s grateful to have Nicola by his side to help them unfold their storyline from friends to lovers.
“It felt so natural,” he reflects. “We didn’t have to do anything to spark it. It was like these characters had been going there for a long time—they talk about Colin and Pen as a slow-burn romance—but actually when we got there… ”
Nicola finishes, “We just had to do it.”
“We had to hold back the chemistry for the first two seasons,” the Derry Girls star continues. “And then when we were ready to unleash it, we were like, ‘This is it!’”
In fact, Luke credits his friendship with Nicola for being crucial to Colin and Penelope’s dynamic.
“It felt like a really safe space to explore these scenes and find new and interesting ways to do it,” he explains. “The show is known for its sex scenes, so we wanted to really encapsulate Colin and Pen’s love story. Their humour and all the different genres that their relationship plays out.”
But Luke isn’t the only actor to undergo a transformation for his role. Read on to see what other celebrities have done for their projects.
Cillian Murphy
To play scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, the Irish actor “had to lose quite a bit of weight,” he shared. “He was very skinny, almost skinny, drinking martinis and smoking.” His diet? According to co-star Emily Blunt, “He did an incredible job. And he could only eat one almond a day.”
