Bridgerton and Nicola Coughlan take to the red carpet in Dublin

Luke Newton, who plays Coughlan’s on-screen love interest, also attends screening at Lighthouse Cinema

Nicola Coughlan and Netflix’s hit show Bridgerton took over town on Thursday night, with a special screening of the show at the Lighthouse Cinema in Dublin as part of its world press tour.

Coughlan, who plays Penelope Featherington, and whose relationship is the focal point of this season, walked the red carpet with her costar Luke Newton, who plays Colin Bridgerton, her love interest.

The event was the penultimate night of an international press tour, that Newton and Coughlan have been on since January.

However, at a Q&A session before the screening, Coughlan said the Irish welcome has been something else.

“When people started singing olé, olé, olé, I was like, wow – I am Packie Bonner,” she laughed.

Her costar, Newton, agreed with her, saying that Thursday’s event was the biggest response they had: “to finish off the tour here was just really special”, he said.

Speaking to press on the red carpet, Coughlan spoke about how fun it is to be on a show like Bridgerton, “that celebrates sexuality”.

“It’s just not been done on the show before, but because the characters [Penelope and Colin] have known each other for so long, I really love the second half, I think it’s going to be really special,” Coughlan said.

Bridgerton is known for its risqué scenes featuring nudity and sex, and the Galway native ensured she was not going to shy away from it, saying that it felt “empowering”.

However, one thing the star did note, was that she was not looking forward to her family seeing it, especially her parents in Galway on Friday night.

“It’s a lot, my sister is here tonight and she was all brave and hard, I was like maybe just close your eyes for a bit, there’s nothing I can do. They’ve really masterminded this in order to watch these scenes, this is the most intense one, I would say probably,” she said.

“I think, you know what we’re going to do? I’ll let them watch it, I won’t be there, and then afterwards we’ll just pretend it never happened, a nice bit of denial, do you know what? A bit of Irish style, when I’m back home, let’s just forget that moment.”

Coughlan also spoke at length about her consistent support for Palestine and was wearing an Artists4Ceasefire badge on her Erdem dress.

“Because I’m Irish, we have such connections to Palestine, and always have. I remember Palestinian flags down Shop Street when I was in university, there’s such a connection there,” she said.

“I think a lot of people look to Joe Biden and go, you’re very proud of your Irish roots, so it would be great if you could use that and apply it to the same situation and help people that are in need.”

“There’s so many eyes on me right now and some people are like, who cares what an actress thinks? And I go, yes, do you know what you’re right, but what I can do is hopefully raise money for people in need,” Coughlan said.

The actor currently has a fundraiser on her Instagram page for Palestinian children’s relief fund that has raised more than €1.6 million.

When asked if she has received pushback from people regarding her support for Palestine, Coughlan said she does not think it matters.

“I’m not the one suffering in the situation. It’s such a weird dichotomy to think that I’m so proud of this show and it’s so good and fun but I’m hyper aware of what’s going on in Gaza right now”.

“I think from my perspective, I think, if I have all these eyes on me and people who love this show, if I can amplify aid organisations … that’s what I want to put out, I’m like let’s just do that, if I get a few mean Instagram comments, I’ll live, I’m not the important one here,” she said.

Coughlan’s costar Newton wore Simone Rocha on the red carpet, and had filmed a Disney show in Belfast previously, he said. He has also got a friend in Mullingar and has visited him, doing a concert there, “probably 10 years ago”, but remembers it fondly.

“I loved it, we stayed in a – got locked in a pub – all night, it was amazing,” Newton said. He added that he would love to work with Cillian Murphy, calling the Oscar-winning Cork man an “absolute genius”.

However Coughlan did say that Newton has begun to struggle with understanding her accent since they touched down in Ireland.

“Poor Luke, he’s like, your accent is getting thicker and thicker and thicker, and we’ve been in Brazil, so I’ve had to really like turn my Galway pace, slow it down,” Coughlan laughed.