*Spoilers included* Join the cast of 'Bridgerton' as they take Vanity Fair behind the scenes of the filming of the Season 3 finale. Nicola Coughlan, Luke Newton, Claudia Jesse, director Tom Verica and more members break down all the details from what entails a day on set to how the Butterfly Ball came to life.
Season 3 of Bridgerton is available to stream exclusively on Netflix.
Director: Adam Lance Garcia
Director of Photography: James Fox
Editor: Cory Stevens
Producer: Madison Coffey
Line Producer: Romeeka Powell
Production Manager: Natasha Soto-Albors
Production Coordinator: Jamal Colvin
Talent Booker: Mica Medoff
Audio Engineer: Mark Cheffins
Production Assistant: Jack Haynes
Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin
Post Production Coordinator: Scout Alter
Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen
Assistant Editor: Justin Symonds
Season 3 of Bridgerton is available to stream exclusively on Netflix.
Director: Adam Lance Garcia
Director of Photography: James Fox
Editor: Cory Stevens
Producer: Madison Coffey
Line Producer: Romeeka Powell
Production Manager: Natasha Soto-Albors
Production Coordinator: Jamal Colvin
Talent Booker: Mica Medoff
Audio Engineer: Mark Cheffins
Production Assistant: Jack Haynes
Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin
Post Production Coordinator: Scout Alter
Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen
Assistant Editor: Justin Symonds
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00This scene we've been shooting since Monday, it is now Wednesday.
00:03The ball days are always like the big, big days on set.
00:05I knew how demanding it was going to be that I was going to be in almost every day.
00:08And then you're filming for like 12 hours.
00:10Shall I have a vodka? No, there's no time.
00:12Have a cup of tea, go to bed and do it on repeat.
00:18Hello, I'm Luke Newton. Come and join me shooting a day on Bridgerton.
00:25Today's date is the 22nd of...
00:28Today's date.
00:29Could be December right now.
00:31Hell knows.
00:31January the 83rd.
00:33Today's date is the 22nd of February, 2023.
00:36We're filming the scene number...
00:40I believe it might be scene 33, part 5.
00:44We are filming episode 8.
00:46Which is the final episode of season 3.
00:48And we are currently at the butterfly ball.
00:50It is the butterfly ball, do you want to say that?
00:52Yeah, that's a great answer.
00:56Yeah, thanks.
00:56That's terrible.
00:57I know all of my lines.
00:58We have been filming since July.
01:01Almost the full year.
01:02Since I was 12 and I'm now 46.
01:06And as you can tell, I'm dealing with it incredibly well.
01:08It's the final ball, like the final, final ball.
01:10It's in typically over-the-top Featherington fashion.
01:13There's a lot of pieces to cover and we've got like 40 cast,
01:16maybe like 150 supporting actors and then all the crew.
01:19So the ball days are always like the big, big days on set.
01:21My day begins with a little morning cry.
01:26And then I get to work.
01:27Someone brings me a coffee.
01:28It's outrageous the way I get treated, actually.
01:30In a way that's brilliant.
01:32Quick breakfast, get into the chair, hair and makeup.
01:34You get dressed, we'll go to block first.
01:36Then come back and get dressed.
01:38I got up at half six.
01:39I'm in hair and makeup for about three hours.
01:41It takes a million years because I'm in a corsage.
01:44And then I go and see one of my best mates, who's my makeup artist.
01:48She's very nice.
01:48One of my best mates, who's my makeup artist.
01:50She's very good.
01:51This is not me.
01:52I look like a foot.
01:54You can't see it because I'm wearing my blunt stones at the moment.
01:56My proper boots.
01:58This is a wig.
01:58I have this much hair in real life.
02:00And this is tight across my arms.
02:02This one's quite loose, but usually my arms can go like...
02:05And then I can't give them any higher than that.
02:06And then eventually you get called to set.
02:08And then we start bloody acting.
02:10I hope I can say bloody.
02:12Because I've said it twice now.
02:13My day will end when I get home at about half 10, quarter 11.
02:18Shall I have a vodka?
02:19No, there's no time.
02:20Have a cup of tea, go to bed and do it on repeat.
02:22This scene we've been shooting, I think, since Monday.
02:25It is now Wednesday.
02:26Since God was a boy, we've been filming this scene.
02:29We have four days here.
02:30The challenge, of course, is having everybody in here
02:33and actors complaining when they're not in scenes,
02:36why they have to be in the background.
02:37But this is Bridgerton Balls and what it is.
02:40This is like Ultimate Jenga on steroids.
02:42You have about eight scenes held within the frame of one ball.
02:45We could be having a scene.
02:46And behind us, we have the rest of the tonneau here.
02:49We're shooting on me.
02:50The tonneau is doing this way.
02:50If we shoot something from another point,
02:52we have to get you and me in the background.
02:54So you have to see everything in 360 degrees in 4D all the time.
02:59For Tom Verica, who's directing, it's the ultimate crazy mind game.
03:04Once I had the script, I started shot listing,
03:06plotted kind of where all of our actors are.
03:08So if I can isolate a character off or be over a character
03:11and work them into editing later on, I have to break all that down.
03:15I think the hardest thing about shooting these sequences
03:17is that we can jump in at different parts of the ball.
03:19For example, today, we've jumped in towards the end.
03:22Yesterday, we started sort of earlier.
03:24We have three cameras.
03:25We don't normally have three cameras going,
03:27but we need it for this because the amount of coverage that we need to get.
03:30Put it together in the edit and it'll come together.
03:31It's a real collaborative effort from all departments, really.
03:34It's a totally different experience filming this series
03:37as a supporting character to a lead character.
03:39I knew how demanding it was going to be that I was going to be in almost every day.
03:42I think I knew I had to really just get my head in it.
03:44These times can be quite challenging because there's a lot of waiting around.
03:47Conservation of energy is very, very important.
03:50Knowing when to bring the fun
03:53and then also when to just key into what's happening.
03:56You have to very much support the other actors.
03:58It feels like one big family having everyone in.
04:00You have the Bridgertons, the Frederictons, Lady Danbury, the Queen.
04:03Well, as someone who deals with crippling social anxiety,
04:06mostly it's just the overwhelming amount of people in a space.
04:09That's the hardest bit for me.
04:12That's a really selfish answer.
04:14But the crew deal with it really well.
04:19I prepare well in advance.
04:21I'm working with the production designer, with our DP.
04:23We kind of see what our parameters are.
04:25What's amazing about being at these balls is seeing the amount of detail
04:30that's gone into every element of the design,
04:33whether it's the food, the room, whether it's the costumes,
04:36whether it's the hair, whether it's the makeup.
04:38You can really see that the team have come together
04:42to create something beautiful on a colossal scale.
04:45I had an idea for a visual effects roof.
04:46So we're putting a glass dome on this, which is not here.
04:49And then we talked about the stage
04:50and I wanted a little raised stage in the middle of the room.
04:53The Queen enters and then Penn ultimately reveals her moment here.
04:57And I wanted her to be up on the stage a little bit.
04:59Thematically, metaphorically, it's about her stepping into the light
05:02and finding her voice.
05:04We thought about the floor treatment
05:05and the fact that from an overhead shot,
05:08it would look a bit like an optical illusion.
05:10It gives her gravitas, but at the same time,
05:13she's sort of caged by the columns that surround her,
05:16but she's breaking free.
05:18And that all plays into that final speech, really.
05:20We looked at the Featherington characters
05:22and what we've done in the past for them.
05:24It's a real explosion of color, this one, isn't it?
05:26It's Regency pumped up,
05:28but it's also for the Featheringtons, it's pumped up as well
05:31because they've got this in-your-face bold color palette.
05:34We can tweak the knob up to number 11, really,
05:37because we're in the world of Bridgerton.
05:38First thing we wanted to do was take Penelope
05:42away from the Regency line.
05:44We wanted to move her a little bit into the future
05:46and we wanted to definitely give her a waistline.
05:49That was done by George's innovation of...
05:521950s waspies and a Wonder Bar.
05:55Yeah, it has the feel of Regency, but it's fantasy.
05:58We come up with any silhouette we like, any period that we like,
06:02that looks good on the actor and for the character.
06:04With Penelope, George gave her a nice 1950s Marilyn Monroe shape.
06:09She still looks Regency, she still looks period,
06:11but it's a subtle change that people that love her character
06:15won't think it's a huge change.
06:16When we have her initial transformation at the Four Seasons Ball,
06:20she came out with quite a strong color.
06:22The whole ball ends up going really badly for her,
06:24so her color palette goes straight down.
06:26This is her coming back out at the end,
06:28so we've got a stronger color again.
06:30We always like to go out with a bang
06:32and working with John, who's the costume designer,
06:34you tend to really do that.
06:36Because he does that, I am allowed,
06:38with both the hair and the makeup, to go pretty mood, I would say.
06:41I think it feels a little bit like a cabaret.
06:43We've got quite strong colors,
06:45even some of the men have got makeup.
06:47With Penelope, my inspiration was a very old, glamorous Hollywood.
06:52Rita Hayworth, definitely,
06:54and then I think a little bit of Jessica Rabbit, actually.
06:56Iconic.
06:57We've got the red lips as well for her speaking out to everybody
07:00and telling everyone that she is Lady Whistledown.
07:03The butterflies, the visual effect element,
07:06that requires a lot of conceiving ahead of time.
07:08That's what a lot of these actors here are reacting to,
07:11which nobody knows what it's going to look like yet.
07:13So my biggest surprise will be once we layer in that last piece.
07:20I think a lot of this season, Penelope will be realizing
07:22she can no longer separate her two identities,
07:24who she truly is and Lady Whistledown,
07:26that they're one and the same person.
07:27In order for her to live her truth
07:29and for people to really accept her,
07:30she has to accept that within herself
07:32and present herself to society.
07:33So she takes a sort of terrifying move
07:35to write to the Queen and tell her,
07:37you know, I am Lady Whistledown
07:38and I want a chance to explain myself.
07:39So she sort of comes up in front of all these people,
07:41which is something Penelope would never normally do,
07:44and say, this is why I did what I did
07:45and you can accept me or not, but this is what's happened.
07:48So it's like a huge moment for her.
07:49Hello, all.
07:53Or should I say, dearest gentle readers.
07:57Penelope speaking her truth
07:59is probably the most fabulous thing.
08:01We all have our own internal narratives going.
08:02And if she's made the internal narrative one of,
08:05my voice is never heard
08:06and I have to stay in the background
08:07and the only way I get heard is when I write
08:10as this sort of fake version of me, Lady Whistledown.
08:14When she owns her own narrative and goes,
08:16I am that powerful and front-footed woman
08:19within the body of this shy retiring person
08:22that society has made me.
08:23She owns the truth of all of who she is.
08:25As a notion, philosophically, that's what we all want to do.
08:28We want to go, this is who I am.
08:29I'm not going to have to fake it
08:30because society doesn't like me being who I am.
08:33I'm just going to own who I am.
08:34I'm giving myself goosebumps.
08:36Marvelous.
08:37No one has ever taken any part of me seriously.
08:40I only realize now how common that feeling must be,
08:45to be a young lady to whom no one listens.
08:48I don't know that there's ever been
08:49a two-page monologue in this show.
08:51That's a lot of words to say all together.
08:54To say all together.
08:54And also for the character,
08:56someone like Penelope would find it so intimidating
08:58to stand up in front of 200 people.
09:00I wrote about all of you because I was captivated by you.
09:04Living your lives so out in the open.
09:08And in writing about all of you,
09:09I suddenly felt as if I had a life.
09:12I had power.
09:13It felt like a really momentous thing.
09:15And you're seeing Eloise in the audience
09:17and seeing Lady Featherington and the Queen being there.
09:19And she speaks to Lady Danbury for the first time on screen.
09:22I'm sure that asked her and they've spoken,
09:23but Adjoa and I were saying it's so funny in three seasons,
09:25we've never had a conversation.
09:27You knew it was me?
09:29I suspected.
09:30You are not the only Lady of the Town who can keep a secret.
09:34Something in Julia Quinn's books is that
09:36Lady Danbury and Penelope are really good friends.
09:37So it's really nice to have that.
09:39I hope it's only the start of that relationship.
09:41That would be very fun.
09:42Pen, ever since I found out you are Whistledown,
09:47I've done everything I can to try to separate you from her.
09:50Colin and Penelope meet towards the end of the ball
09:53and they're both on different pages at this point.
09:55It's quite an emotional scene.
09:57There's lots of honest feelings.
09:58It's a really beautiful moment towards the end of the story.
10:01Luke and I have had that advantage
10:02of having worked with one another for two seasons previously.
10:04So having that groundwork there
10:06was really beautiful to come in and build on.
10:08We spoke today about, you know,
10:09filming episode eight as opposed to episode one.
10:11We're like, it's been eight months,
10:12so it's such an intense process.
10:14But I think the best thing has been having
10:15Luke as a partner within it and, you know,
10:17having someone that's as invested in the characters
10:19and gives as much time and care,
10:21makes it just like a fantastic process.
10:25I love you.
10:28You're a very good man, Mr Bridgerton.
10:31I love you.
10:35Bridgerton's such a big world.
10:36I feel like we're custodians of the Bridgerton love story
10:39for a time and we'll pass it on to the next people.
10:40But I take the responsibility seriously
10:42and I know these books have been beloved for like 20 odd years.
10:45So I want to, you know, honour them as much as I can
10:47and get it right for the fans.
10:51I've got to go.
10:52You see all these people going in,
10:53I'm being called back to video building.
10:55So I'm going to go direct to C&C.
10:57I hope you've gotten enough time with everybody.
11:06Wrapper up.
11:07Thank you and sorry.
11:08I'm so tired.
11:10Delete this.