‘Bridgerton’ Season 3’s New Showrunner on Penelope, Colin, and Sex Scenes With a Purpose

In 2008, a nervous assistant was asked to act opposite three of TV’s biggest stars. “I remember looking around the room and there was McDreamy [Patrick Dempsey] and McSteamy [Eric Dane] and Ellen Pompeo,” that anxiety-ridden aide now recalls. “I turned bright red and my heart was beating so fast before my line, my one line, to the point that the guy sitting next to me said, ‘I thought you were going to pass out.’ So I’ve come a long way,” she tells Vanity Fair with a laugh.

More than 15 years after that Grey’s Anatomy table read, Jess Brownell is reigning over the new season of Bridgerton, one of Netflix’s biggest shows of all time. After four years spent as an assistant to Betsy Beers, longtime producing partner of TV mogul Shonda Rhimes, Brownell began doing “political research on Scandal that I was wholly unqualified” for, finally getting elevated to full-blown writer when Shondaland moved operations from ABC to Netflix—first on Bridgerton, then Inventing Anna, the juicy limited series about socialite scammer Anna Delvey. Says Brownell, “Shonda and Betsy have really supported my glow-up, so to speak.”

The showrunner’s slow burn makes her a natural fit to helm the third season of Bridgerton, which centers on childhood friends Colin (Luke Newton) and Penelope (Nicola Coughlan) as they finally confront their feelings for each other. Their love story, adapted from Julia Quinn’s Romancing Mister Bridgerton, takes center stage on the series earlier than it does in the novels (sorry, Benedict!)—and hinges on a Some Kind of Wonderful–esque arrangement in which Colin schools Penelope in the art of finding a husband—a plan that, naturally, backfires.

Season 3 of Bridgerton, which takes some big creative swings, debuts in two parts that mimic this journey. The first four episodes are out May 16, while the steamier back half drops on June 13. Brownell previews her inaugural season with Vanity Fair, from splitting the story to Penelope’s compelling new love interest: “He would’ve been great for her, if she hadn’t been in love with the same guy since she was a kid.”

Luke Thompson, Claudia Jessie, Luke Newton, Nicola Coughlan, Shonda Rhimes, Jess Brownell, Golda Rosheuvel, Adjoa Andoh and Martins Imhangbe attend a season 3 screening of Bridgerton in London.Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images

Vanity Fair: Nicola and Luke learned that they’d be leading season three of Bridgerton while filming the second season. When did conversations about you taking over as showrunner begin?

Jess Brownell: Those started towards the end of season two. Chris Van Dusen was moving on to other projects, and so I got a call from Shonda one Saturday, which was unusual because she really never calls on a weekend. She asked me if I would be interested in stepping in, and it was an incredible phone call to receive. I’ve loved this show so much from day one. Romantic comedy is really where my heart is.

What was your bread and butter as a writer on the first two seasons of Bridgerton?

In season one, I got the opportunity to write a lot of the Daphne [Phoebe Dynevor] and Simon [Regé-Jean Page] scenes. Chris also looked to me for a lot of the early intimacy scenes, which were scary to write, at first, because I didn’t know how far we were going. So there was some awkwardness there. But at this point, now that we know what we’re doing, writing those intimacy scenes is second nature and we just treat it very professionally.

I imagine it was especially gratifying to see that Bridgerton made such a splash in large part because of the steamier scenes.

Sex is such a part of all of our lives. There’s a lot of great stories that can be told through intimacy, and that’s what we try to focus on is: what character growth are we seeing based on what’s happening between these two characters in bed. We constantly try to make sure that there is forward momentum rather than just throwing it in to be gratuitous.

When Shonda called about a third season, was it already planned that Benedict’s [Luke Thompson] love story would be skipped for Colin and Penelope?

The decision to switch to Colin and Penelope was made between myself and Shonda when we had our first conversation about me stepping in. First, she asked me to be showrunner, and then I went off and reread all the books and came back to her. Season two hadn’t wrapped yet, so there was still time to influence the ending of season two to set it up properly for season three. And we both just felt strongly that Colin and Penelope, we know these characters really well. We’ve watched this dynamic where Colin doesn’t quite get it that Penelope likes him, and we felt like we didn’t want that to grow stale, so it felt like it was time to go in another direction with them.

Beyond the narrative sense that the shift made, was there something about Colin and Penelope’s story that you felt you could really offer something to as a writer?

Their story really speaks to me—the unrequited crush, the wallflower-underdog coming off the wall. That speaks to high school Jess. I liked that the Penelope and Colin story lends itself so well to rom-com tropes because it’s a friends-to-lovers story. There’s more playfulness and familiarity to the story and that allows us to lean into awkward banter and play up the humor a little bit more.

Nicola Coughlan as Penelope Featherington and Luke Newton as Colin Bridgerton in Bridgerton season 3.LIAM DANIEL/NETFLIX

One of my favorite things about watching the two of them onscreen is how much they laugh together, which is something you don’t get in a lot of period romances. Were there any romantic comedies that influenced the writing of this couple?

A lot. Any movie where there’s a less popular lead versus a more popular lead. So pretty much any John Hughes movie: Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles. We talked about She’s All That a lot, and then just generally, tonally, Richard Curtis movies, Nora Ephron movies. I go back to the banter of movies like An Affair to Remember and Love Story, which are the same movie, actually, and Roman Holiday. Banter is my favorite thing to write, and so a lot of those older classic rom-coms I draw from.

Having Colin and Penelope as the two leads feels really satisfying because we have an attachment to them already. What insights did Nicola and Luke bring after two seasons spent playing their characters?

I felt so lucky that I got to do my first season show-running with Nicola and Luke. They were both so warm and so collaborative, and know their characters so well. I’m writing an ensemble of 25-plus characters, so I did look to them to go deeper on their characters.

Nicola, as an actress, has a real effervescence and strength that she brings to the character. Even though Penelope really got dumped on quite a bit at the end of season two, she enters this season a woman who’s going to make the best of a bad situation, and a lot of that is informed by what Nicola brings to the role.

As far as Luke, his character this season has to undergo a pretty major persona change that mostly happens off-camera in between seasons. Last season, he was this awkward coming-of-age guy who hadn’t quite found his place in the world, and all of a sudden, he’s back with this swagger and confidence. Luke just really nailed it, figured out how to also imbue that performance with depth. Because obviously, if you’re denying a certain part of who you really are and coming back with a whole new persona, there’s still parts of you that are under the surface.

In the first four episodes, Colin and Penelope are driven by the desire to find a person who truly embraces all of who they are. That path leads them to some aesthetic changes. How did you thread the transformation piece of their story without making it purely surface level?

We start with the surface-level makeover—both of them have new looks in episode one. That’s the first and easiest strategy, but it’s a strategy that fails. A makeover only gets you so far if you haven’t done the internal work. And so it’s about watching them realize that they’re going to have to step into their power in a more authentic way.

Regency era mothers play a sizable role in leading their children into the marriage mart. Can you talk about fleshing out the characters of Violet Bridgerton and Portia Featherington this season?

There’s a lot of Lady Featherington overlooking Penelope that we really play up this season. The relationship between Portia and Penelope is very central this year. [With Violet], last season with Anthony, she was much more in his business and telling him directly what he needed to do because he was more of a stubborn character. Colin is a bit more of a sensitive kid, and she knows that he needs a different kind of parenting. So what’s interesting is you see her use different tactics with each kid. This year she’s a little bit removed, just gives little subtle hints to Colin—pushing him in the right direction, but never tells him exactly what he should do, even though she really does know everything that’s going on.

The trailer suggests that Violet may be getting a love interest this season. What can you say about that development?

Grownups need kisses, too, and it felt like the right time for Violet to open up. She has two kids married. Obviously her having to get her kids married off will continue for many seasons, but we all, in the writers’ room, push against the idea that mothers should live their entire lives for their children. So we felt like it was important to emphasize that Violet deserves love just as much as her kids.

Lord Debling (Sam Phillips) emerges as a true romantic rival for Colin. What was important about introducing her new love interest?

I think the word you used, creating a true romantic rival, was really the goal. I think that some people are going to be shipping Debling and Penelope.

Penelope is such an anomalous woman for that time period. She has a career. She might be a wallflower, but she’s done this incredible thing completely on her own. And in many ways, she deserves to be with someone who is also an exceptional man. So Debling is this guy who has great ambitions and is incredibly sensitive and thoughtful, and doesn’t really care what the Ton thinks about him, even though he’s a little bit outside of the norms. And that’s really where Penelope needs to get to, to care less about what other people think of her. So it felt like a nice foil to Colin. There’s a world where he would’ve been great for her, if she hadn’t been in love with the same guy since she was a kid.

There are some hotly anticipated intimate scenes from the book that get incorporated into the season. What was most vital about bringing those to the screen?

Our intimacy coordinator, Lizzy Talbot, is really incredible, and we led with what Nicola and Luke were comfortable with. But story-wise, we did feel like it was important to see Penelope stepping into her power and to see Colin stepping into his sensitivity. They have parallel but opposite tracks, in some ways, this season, and intimacy is the perfect place to express both of those arcs.

It feels like female pleasure and agency is really top of mind in those scenes too.

We are very mindful to lead with consent in these scenes. So much agency in this time period was taken away from women, and obviously, the show pushes back on that in certain ways. But we are still in a time period where women had less choice than men. They got to choose a husband and that was pretty much their only means of power. So allowing the women to have real agency and consent in those intimacy scenes is even more important, probably, than if it were a modern-day show.

We also see the entrance of Francesca Bridgerton into society. What was most thrilling about exploring that character this season?

I have to hand it to Hannah Dodd, who stepped into the role of Francesca this year. There was the risk with the Francesca character that she could be unknowable or inaccessible, but Hannah brings this real nuance and subtlety to her expressiveness in her performance that allows us inside her head in a really powerful way.

Francesca was a really exciting character to write this year because she doesn’t appear much in seasons one and two. I felt like I got to do a little bit more invention with her, of course, guided by [author] Julia Quinn. The Bridgertons are mostly extroverted and charming and at ease in social situations. And then you have Francesca, who is the introvert of the family. She’s much more reserved, much more taciturn. But she also has this really rich inner life and a strong point of view, which is challenging to Violet when Francesca debuts this year on the marriage mart. Violet knows very well how to shepherd her other children who are very vocal about what their feelings are, but because Francesca is more of an enigma, it creates a real hurdle for Violet.

Ruth Gemmell as Lady Violet Bridgerton, Hannah Dodd as Francesca Bridgerton, and Florence Hunt as Hyacinth Bridgerton in Bridgerton season 3.LIAM DANIEL/NETFLIX

This season, for the first time, will be released in two parts. Was that due to the strikes, or a strategic choice from the streamer?

We didn’t initially plan for there to be a break in the middle. Netflix approached us about splitting the season in two. It’s something I think they’re trying out across their platform, and it worked out perfectly, actually. We had a natural break at the end of episode four. I’m sure it’s going to be frustrating for some fans, but it’s nice to have that break to take it all in and speculate about what’s to come, build momentum before the second part comes out.

How engaged are you with the show’s rabid online fandom?

I’m aware, to an extent, of what the fans are saying. I get sent the most fun theories about Footman John and Eloise; people think that they have a relationship. Things like that end up in my inbox. But for the most part, I try to stay away from it when I am working just so I’m not influenced. I know that the fan base is not a monolith and that I can’t please everyone. So instead, I’ve tried to hire writers who represent different sides of the fan base, and we have those debates in the writer’s room.

What was the biggest lesson you learned on your first season as a showrunner that you’re bringing into season four?

That’s a good question. I’ve learned to delegate more. I was probably micromanaging the scripts a little too closely, and trying to be involved in every aspect of production, and oversee every little thing. And that was really fun, but I also wore myself thin. Now that I’m in season four, I just really trust everyone I work with, and so I’m empowering people to do great work, instead of trying to manage every single thing.

Is there a day of shooting that you’re most excited for the fans to see this season?

There is a set piece in episode five in which all of our major characters are together, and that was a really fun one to film because it’s so rare that we get everyone in the same place at the same time. So that was really a summer camp day. I’ll just say the word charades, and people will know what it is when they see it.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

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