“Bridgerton” star Luke Newton on Colin's jealousy of Whistledown and his future as a writer

"He finds it intimidating that [Penelope's] so successful," Newton tells EW. "And he has to learn to accept that and how the power dynamic shifts between them."

WARNING: This article contains spoilers for Bridgerton season 3, part 2.

Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) is the hero of Bridgerton season 3. But in Part 2, he's also kind of the villain.

After discovering that Penelope (Nicola Coughlan), his soon-to-be-wife, is actually Lady Whistledown and has been lying to him, he is outraged. Deeply hurt and feeling betrayed, he agrees to still marry her, since they have been intimate, but he insists on sleeping on the couch and is generally cold and distant. If it's really just that Whistledown's columns about him and his family hurt his feelings, shouldn't he, well, get over it?

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But Newton says that Colin's hurts are much deeper and more complicated than that. "The person that understands it the most, why Colin holds the weight of it so much, is his mother," he tells Entertainment Weekly. "He is one of the most sensitive of the Bridgerton siblings, and he likes to hold the weight. It's almost like torturing himself by taking on the world when he doesn't want others to suffer around him. It wasn't really the stuff that had been said about him."

"He's obviously affected by it and his ego's slightly bruised," Newton continues. "But also, it's because she sees the truth. That's the thing with Colin and Penn. She sees him for who he really is. So when she writes those things, it bugs him because it's true. Ultimately, it's the weight of everything. He feels the weight of it on his shoulders and holds that when the other siblings are less sensitive and they can let it go."

There's also the added wrinkle of traditional gender roles and Colin wrestling with Penelope's success (particularly in arena where he would like to be working). "He finds it intimidating that she's so successful," Newton reflects. "That's the journey of Part 2, that he has to learn to accept that and how the power dynamic shifts between them. It's about overcoming that and accepting that, ultimately, Whistledown is part of her as well. It's not really an alter ego where she's pretending to be someone else, it's a part of her that she had to keep secret."

Colin does, at least, step up when Penelope is being blackmailed by Cressida Cowper (Jessica Madsen), insisting that he will handle the situation and not allow anyone to blackmail his wife. But Newton likens that more to Colin's savior complex than to any shift in his attitude toward Penelope in that moment.

"We've seen it even in previous seasons, that he does have a hero complex, because he's the third son," he says. "He lacks purpose. The absence of a father has affected him and he feels like he needs to protect everyone around him. That moment when the threat of Cressida comes up ignites a spark. I remember [showrunner] Jess [Brownell] saying to me, that it gets Colin going."

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"We see that in that scene when he's suddenly like, 'Wow, I have a purpose,'" he continues. "'I can do this. I can fix things. I'm charming, I can talk around this, and it gives me something to focus on.' I love the blackmail moment because it really ignites the spark in him. But Penelope ultimately convinces him that he doesn't need to be that guy. He's good enough as he is, just being a supportive, loving husband is enough for her."

It is, indeed, enough, and once Penelope's secret is out in the open, both she and Colin can live happily without the wait of the potential scandal weighing on them. We see that happiness in season 3's epilogue where Colin and Penn welcome their first child, and Penelope continues writing the Whistledown column, signing it with her new name, "Penelope Bridgerton."

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Colin also achieves his goal of publishing a book, written from his travel journals with Penelope's help. Does he have a bigger literary future ahead?

"I wonder if he's the kind of writer that he's one and done," Newton muses. "He's done his journals and he's happy with that. And I'm sure we'll talk about the success of it. Whenever you are in the romantic couple of the season, it's so tortured and full of drama and it can be quite heavy. There were moments when Colin is in that honeymoon phase; he feels good, he's giddy and content and in love. Everything goes wrong soon after that. But as an actor, it's really nice to sit in that. I remember those days thinking, 'God, this is really nice to go home after playing a couple of scenes where everything feels really light and there are comedy moments in it.'"

"Nicola and I are excited to explore more of the rom-com element," he concludes. "We got to do a little bit of that early on in Part 1, but maybe we'll go into a different phase of rom-com and they'll be able to bounce off each other in a funny, happily married couple way. It's always interesting to see each couple do that. We see that with Anthony and Kate this season. I'm also looking forward to supporting whoever's next and getting involved in that."

Bridgerton season 3 is now streaming on Netflix.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.