If they’d had their way, Bridgerton stars Claudia Jessie and Nicola Coughlan would’ve had very different respective journeys through Regency London.
In a recent game of Knowing Me, Knowing You with ELLE UK, Jessie and her co-star, Luke Newton, whose love life is the focus of the upcoming third season, Jessie correctly guessed that Coughlan in fact auditioned for her role of Eloise, while she had auditioned for Coughlan’s role of Penelope.
'I didn’t actually audition for Eloise; I auditioned for Penelope,’ she confirmed, before Newton reminded her how ‘weird’ that would be, in reference to his and Coughlan’s characters’ ‘steamy’ scenes in the upcoming third season. It took just a quick glance at one another for Jessie to pretend to barf before saying, ‘Listen, you’re a beautiful man but God, it makes me feel sick.’
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Jessie, of course, plays Eloise Bridgerton, the fifth child of a wealthy family finding its place in high society, in Netflix’s boundary-breaking Regency-era drama, but when asked what other Bridgerton character she’d play if she could, she was quick off the bat. ‘One of the queen’s Pomeranians,’ she quipped. ‘Stuffed with treats, sat with Golda [Rosheuvel] all day.’
So close is the Bridgerton cast that when asked which of their co-stars practices different accents by watching Instagram videos, Jessie was the first to say: 'Is it Nicola? She's amazing at accents.'
'She's also big on social media,' Newton, who seemed to forget that he'd once admitted to feeling like he had two left feet during Bridgerton's dance scenes, added. 'She does the other accent in the show too, which always throws me.' The answer was, of course, Coughlan.
From revealing their best accents to which worthy causes they support, you can watch the rest of Claudia Jessie and Luke Newton’s Knowing Me, Knowing You video at the top of this article.
The first four episodes of Bridgerton season three will be available to stream on Netflix on May 16, followed by the release of the final four on June 13.
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Naomi May is a seasoned culture journalist and editor with over ten years’ worth of experience in shaping stories and building digital communities. After graduating with a First Class Honours from City University's prestigious Journalism course, Naomi joined the Evening Standard, where she worked across both the newspaper and website. She is now the Digital Editor at ELLE Magazine and has written features for the likes of The Guardian, Vogue, Vice and Refinery29, among many others. Naomi is also the host of the ELLE Collective book club.
