- Insider spoke to
Luke Newton and director Alex Pillai about the drug scene in "Bridgerton " season two. - Both Colin and Benedict were originally hallucinating in early scripts, Newton told Insider.
As soon as the "Bridgerton" cast got their hands on the script for "A Bee In Your Bonnet," the third episode of season two, Luke Newton's phone was inundated with texts.
All of the messages were slightly different variations of: "Have you read this episode yet?"
Newton, who returns to the Regency romance series as Colin Bridgerton, prefaced the anecdote by telling Insider that he's a "slow reader" (the 29-year-old recently opened up about having dyslexia).
He recalled responding, "I'm getting there. I'm getting there. Why? What's going on?"
"There's this scene with you and Benedict," his castmates wrote back, he said. "It's amazing."
In episode three, which
Even though Colin warns Benedict that "it only takes the smallest of doses to feel the effects," his brother plops the entire bag of drugs into his cup and downs it in one gulp, desperate for a diversion.
According to Newton, the powdery concoction "wasn't very nice to drink" in real life. Luckily, he only had to drink a "tiny sip" while Thompson "had to down the whole thing."
"The first take, he spilled it all down his tie and he had this light-colored tie. I was like, 'Bro! it's bright blue, that stuff. We're going to have to wait ages now,'" Newton recalled with a laugh, praising his costar for bringing "something new to every single take."
Going into filming the scene, Alex Pillai, the director of episodes three and four, told Insider that he had several behind-the-scenes discussions about drugs with the cast and crew.
However, he said the tea wasn't based on one specific substance.
When asked about the ingredients that went into creating the Bridgerton boys' bright purple "elixir," Pillai replied: "Well, it was edible and not poisonous."
Hours after ingesting the hallucinogens, Benedict takes his place at the Bridgerton dinner party. Colin does his best to cover for his older brother, who's sweaty and enraptured by the "twinkle of the candles" on the wall.
The scene that made it into the final edit ended up being a more played-down version of what was originally on the page, Newton said.
"Originally, they were both on this absolute trip, and then eventually, it was funnier if Benedict was, and Colin was a bit more worried about the situation and being caught," he explained.
The two middle brothers' episode-three storyline is without a doubt comedy, but it's also about the characters' deep yearning for self-realization, Pillai told Insider.
The director spoke with the "Bridgerton" actors about their characters' return to their ancestral home Aubrey Hall, a setting that he said, "takes them back to their childhood."
"Therefore, all the frustrations of teen years that we're all familiar with come back. That frustration of knowing the world is out there and not being able to get out there," Pillai explained.
He went on: "For Benedict, he's gotten a bit out in the world, but he wants to express himself through his art and that's going to be his escape from this world. For Colin, he's been out there. He's experienced some things, but really his missing piece is Marina. Hopefully, it's going to be Penelope Featherington."
To symbolize their internal struggle, Pillai said the team placed Colin and Benedict inside the Aubrey Hall playroom during the drug scene. They seated them in "little chairs," and, if viewers look behind them, they'll find dolls and children's toys in the background.
The episode-three scenes between Colin and Benedict mirrored Newton's off-screen friendship with Thompson, a "weird coincidence" the actor said he noticed when he read the script.
"It almost felt like the friendship that we built together as actors on season one then was suddenly thrown into season two as our characters," Newton told Insider.
He added: "We obviously like to think, 'Oh, they saw a little bit of us having fun on set,' but it's just how the story is going."