Season 3 of Bridgerton is set to start filming in London this summer, but there’s been a change to the book order. Rather than waiting for Season 4, the third installment will follow Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) and Colin Bridgerton’s (Luke Newton) love story.
Luke Newton, 29, has portrayed Colin since Season 1 aired, and fans are thrilled to see more of the young Bridgerton brother in the upcoming season. The slow-burn romance between Pen and Colin, dubbed Polin, has been long-awaited by fans almost since the first episode of Bridgerton aired. Despite Colin saying he would never marry Pen at the end of Season 2, it looks like things may work out for the yearning Penelope after all.
With the excitement of Polin being front and center in the upcoming season, fans are curious about Colin’s actor, Luke Newton. The Bridgerton star seems to have a somewhat private life, but he’s opened up in the past and revealed some interesting things about himself.
Keep reading below for the top 10 interesting facts about Luke Newton.
10. Luke’s family loves Bridgerton
Bridgerton aired on Christmas Day in 2020, at a time when most of the world was still in a lull while dealing with COVID-19’s impact on the holidays. In an interview with Square Mile, Luke revealed he was staying with his family at the time the show was released.
He and his family all watched the show together, and his family quickly became huge fans of the Regency-era drama. Even the occasional graphic scene doesn’t bother them, though Luke admitted he was a little shyer regarding some of the hot and heavy scenes.
He revealed, “It was quite uncomfortable watching some of the episodes with family members. So I’d go and make a tea at that point, and just sit in the other room until I was ready to come back in. But fortunately, it wasn’t me or my scene, so I didn’t have to endure my mum watching me on screen getting up to all that.”
Unfortunately for Luke, his time may be coming sooner rather than later as Season 3 shifts to focus on his romance with Penelope.
9. Luke studied musical theater
Staying close to his family, Luke attended a college in his hometown close to Brighton while working on his first gig, The Cut, a BBC teen drama.
He studied musical theater in school and told The Independent, “That’s when I really felt like I started to love being… in a learning environment because before then I’d loved my drama class and loved music and PE but other than that I didn’t really get on at school.”
While in school, he landed another huge role as Elder Price in the London production of the musical The Book of Mormon.
He added, “It was just a really overwhelming experience. I never thought that leaving college I’d go straight into the West End, I felt so lucky to be given that opportunity. That whole year, it’s almost a blur now, I just was on such a high the whole time.”
8. Luke began dancing with his aunts
Despite his acting career now, Luke has said that he was pretty shy as a kid, but he isn’t the only person in his family who does work in the performance arts.
He has two aunts who are both dancers and had him dancing at only two years old. He said they put “the tiniest pair of taps” on his feed and from there, the rest is history.
Luke took to tap-dancing naturally, which helped him land his leading role in The Book of Mormon.
7. Luke is described as being similar to Colin Bridgerton
Apparently, when other cast members are asked who is most like the character they play, Luke’s name often comes up.
He is described as kind and a little reserved, a person who chooses his words carefully. Although Luke initially auditioned for the role of the Duke of Hastings, it wasn’t long before he realized that Colin was the role for him.
Luke frequently takes small aspects of Colin’s character from the books and asks to have them added to the series. Although they can’t include everything, there are little bits and pieces of Colin’s personality that viewers see through Luke.
6. Luke is the reason Colin Bridgerton is always eating
One of the personality traits Luke wanted to be included in the Netflix series was Colin’s love for food seen in the books.
Luke confessed he was curious to see if fans would start giving him and his character similar traits, saying, “I spoke to the team and said, ‘If there’s a dinner scene, if there’s a scene where we’re having tea, can he always just have a plateful?’ I’m really excited for [the fans] to see their direct input, like, ‘Luke loves food like Colin does.'”
Luke learns a little more about Colin’s character with each new season of Bridgerton when he delves further into the novel series, as Luke hasn’t actually read all of the Bridgerton books yet.
5. Luke reads Bridgerton books one at a time
Luke revealed that rather than reading all of the Bridgerton books at once, he tends to read them one at a time based on the season of the show they’re filming. He chooses to read them this way so that he doesn’t get the details confused for the season and can focus on the correct details.
He said, “I know that if I read everything I’d struggle and I’d start to play on things from later books and I’d get all muddled up.” Fortunately, Ruth Gemmel, who plays Bridgerton matriarch Lady Violet, has read the books and acts as the novel expert on set.
Aside from getting confused with the book details, there’s likely another reason that Luke hasn’t read all of the books ahead of time.
4. Luke has dyslexia and ADHD
As a child, Luke was diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia, resulting in some learning difficulties that impacted his ability to enjoy school. He was worried that this would impact his career in acting as well, which is why he started in musical theater.
For theater, he said, “I knew I could learn songs really quickly and melodies came quite easily to me,” but that was not the case for script reading.
When it comes to reading a script, he confessed that it’s not only difficult for him to read the script, but his then “attention is taken by everything that’s around me.”
However, he has chosen to stay open about his dyslexia to let other aspiring actors know that they can still thrive regardless of their struggles. And yes, there are struggles but, he said, “as long as I can have the script and have a bit of time before then I’m OK – if someone says, ‘Can you read it now?’ I’m like, ‘Absolutely not.’”
Since he’s opened up about his struggles, he has found it less nerve-racking to be able to say it might take him longer than others, but he’ll have the script down by the time it’s needed. So far, it’s worked for Luke.
3. Luke Newton looks up to Jonathan Bailey like a brother
Jonathan Bailey plays Colin’s older brother Anthony Bridgerton on-screen, but Luke looks up to the actor off-screen as well.
Luke was initially nervous to come back to filming Bridgerton but said that Jonathan helped soothe his nerves.
Luke revealed, “Jonathan Bailey this year was really helpful and gave me some really good tips on how to cope with things. He actually said he’s going to give me a little book of a few things that he picked up along the way to help with the process. He is such a brave actor and will make bold choices. A lesson I’ve learned from Johnny in particular is just to be bold. There’s no wrong or right decision.”
Along with Jonathan, Luke is good friends with his costar Nicola Coughlan, who plays his romantic interest, Penelope.
Of Nicola, Luke said, “Nicola has this really clever way, she can find out more gossip than anyone. It’s actually like she’s our onset Lady Whistledown. The first time we met, she was like [in a whisper], ‘You know I’m Lady Whistledown?’ and I was like ‘What?!’”
Although fans are looking forward to his on-screen romance, Luke does have his very own girlfriend in real life too.
2. Luke is dating Jade Louise Davies
Luke has been dating his girlfriend Jade Louise Davies for about three years.
They both share common interests, as Jade is a stage actor and singer. She currently performs with the musical theater group Welsh of the West End. The couple occasionally comes together to share singing videos on Instagram.
When they aren’t singing for fans, they’re often seen traveling, being outdoors, and generally living life together, complete with brunch mimosas and celebrating holidays together.
However, there was a time in Luke’s life before he was dating Jade and before he was on Bridgerton. One of his first times in the spotlight wasn’t in acting at all— but rather in music.
1. Luke Newton used to be in a boy band
In 2012, Luke signed a million-pound record deal as a member of the boyband South 4. He didn’t even realize what he was getting into at first, or the amount of his record deal.
He confessed, “We were a young and naive group of lads. We met this producer that had written music – I actually didn’t know the details but we suddenly saw in the Evening Standard that we signed a million-pound record deal.”
He said he “actually really enjoyed it” and that “it was quite fun” despite trying to pretend to hate it at the time.
Unfortunately, although he enjoyed his time in the band, his friends constantly remind him of his time there, one even playing one of the band’s songs at their wedding.
Bridgerton Seasons 1 and 2 are streaming on Netflix.
I love Luke so much – so excited for season 3 of Bridgerton! Cannot wait to see his and Penelope’s love story unfold.