Season 3 will see longtime friends Penelope Featherington and Colin Bridgerton contemplate taking their friendship to the next level — and things apparently get steamy

The new season of Bridgerton is shaping up to be its steamiest installment yet.

Nicola Coughlan and Luke Newton, who lead the hit show’s third season as romantic interests Penelope Featherington and Colin Bridgerton, respectively, have both been teasing fans endlessly about the intimate scenes their characters have in the upcoming episodes. They have even admitted to causing damage on set as a result of one.

At the season 3 launch event in Australia over the weekend, where the pair made headlines for holding hands, Coughlan, 37, was asked about reports that she and Newton, 31, broke a piece of furniture while filming a sex scene for the show, to which she replied, “Yeah, hell yeah we did.”

Coughlan and Newton “could have a laugh about it,” she told 7News Australia, and their years-long friendship helped make things less awkward despite the intensity of the scenes.

“It felt like a really safe space,” Newton chimed in, reiterating his costar’s sentiments to the outlet. “There were moments where we could explore the scene and try it different ways and that ended up in a piece of furniture getting broken.”

“We just laughed,” he continued of the aftermath of the damage during the scene, before sharing that he’s hoping the candid footage might make it into the show. “And then, I think Nicola spoke, like in her Irish accent, and I thought, it would have been so special – I mean, maybe it will be in the final cut, us breaking into laughter — ‘cause I think that’s quite Colin and Pen as well. So it would be nice.”

During an interview on SiriusXM Hits 1 earlier this month, Coughlan said that she and Newton found the sex scenes “really funny” and rather than being “so professional with it” — like their predecessors, Jonathan Bailey and Simone Ashley, who were the love interests in season 2 — the pair would joke around in between takes.

“We would be like, in between scenes, and they were like, ‘Do you wanna get up and put your clothes on?’ We’re like, ‘We’ll just chill here.’ Like, in under the blankets,” she recalled. “But then we have the advantage of knowing each other for years.”

While the Derry Girls alum admitted she “didn’t know what it was gonna be like” to film the intimate scenes going into filming, “They were actually really enjoyable. I didn’t think they would be.”

“It’s a little bit like a stunt in which they’re like, ‘Okay, we’re gonna do this, this, and this.’ But then they gave us freedom to like — we had a lot of say in how we did those scenes and what we wanted to do,” she added. “And that gives you — that makes you feel quite empowered.”

The new installment of Shonda Rhimes’ hit Netlfix series will explore the friends-to-lovers story of Penelope and Colin, as told in Julia Quinn’s novel, Romancing Mister Bridgerton. After years spent pining after the third Bridgerton brother, Penelope decides to get serious about pursuing the marriage market, as she declares in the trailer: “I cannot live at home any longer. I must take a husband.”

Colin — who left his friend heartbroken after she overheard him tell his friends he’d “never” court her — then offers Penelope his help in finding a match but seems poised to end up wanting her for himself instead.