Nicola Coughlan Didn’t Want ‘Bridgerton’ Kisses to Be Like ‘Love Island’

Nicola Coughlan sought to make sure that her and Luke Newton’s Bridgerton makeouts didn’t look like the “disgusting” scenes on Love Island.

“I always compare it to Love Island kisses, [which] can look disgusting,” Coughlan, 37, quipped during a Thursday, June 20, appearance on the U.K.’s “Heart” radio show. “I’m sure it feels great but it doesn’t look nice on camera, so we [had] to figure out how to make them pretty.”

Newton, 31, then replied that the Islanders “needed our lessons” before going on the British reality dating show. (Love Island U.K. is currently airing season 11 on ITV with the U.S. spinoff debuting new episodes of its sixth season on Peacock.)

“We’ll go into the villa and be like, ‘Guys, here you go,’” Coughlan quipped.

Coughlan and Newton’s Bridgerton characters, Penelope and Colin, are at the forefront of season 3, which is currently streaming on Netflix. As “Polin” goes from friends to lovers, fans see a number of steamy scenes.

“I was almost more nervous for the first kiss [than the intimate scenes],” Coughlan said on Thursday. “It was terrifying. So, we got to practice it before we filmed it, which was great because it takes the pressure off.”

She continued, “We had an intimacy coordinator with us in my trailer. It felt like being a teenager at school like, ‘We’re gonna arrange how to kiss for the camera. Like, what if it’s weird [or] what if our faces don’t go together properly?’”

Colin and Penelope kiss for the first time in the second episode of the season when she asks the third Bridgerton brother to be her first kiss in the event she never finds a suitor or marries at all. The kiss soon consumes Colin’s thoughts — while awake and asleep — before the couple further acts on their feelings.

After a brief dalliance in a carriage, Colin and Penelope consummate their engagement on a chaise lounge in their marital house. For Coughlan and Newton, the sex scenes were equally as nerve-wracking to film as the kissing ones.

“I have to say in preparation for those days, the most awkward moment is when my makeup artist comes into my trailer to tan my full body and I’m just wearing a cup,” Newton teased during a “Capital Breakfast” appearance earlier this week. “That’s sort of the moment where your relationship with your makeup artist changes and you become best friends.”

Bridgerton season 3 is currently streaming on Netflix.