Harriet Cains x OVERDUE: What does Season 3 of ‘Bridgerton’ have in store for Philippa Featherington?

Open­ing image: Full look ERDEM

Words Leelou Reboh

As Har­ri­et Cains returns as Philip­pa Feath­er­ing­ton for the long-await­ed sea­son 3 of the Net­flix suc­cess show Bridger­ton, the British actress meets with OVERDUE writer Leelou Reboh to dis­cuss the tricks to act­ing in a peri­od dra­ma and teas­es what’s to come.

Cains has come a long way as an actress since the Bridger­ton pilot aired in 2020. ‘I won­dered who was going watch it’, she reveals, dis­cussing the moment she found out she land­ed the role. Hav­ing over­come the ini­tial pres­sure of such a large-scale project, the young woman has grown to ful­ly embrace her char­ac­ter’s extrav­a­gant ten­den­cies and the thrill of being on set.

How has Philip­pa’s char­ac­ter evolved since her last appear­ance in sea­son 2?

Since sea­son 2, Philippa’s been in mar­i­tal bliss. She has a good man that dotes on her. She’s try­ing to inher­it the Feath­er­ing­ton estate through­out this new sea­son, but I think as it goes on she has a more per­son­al growth that is far more impor­tant. She is start­ing to have val­ue for the things that mat­ter more. She’s try­ing to encour­age the rest of her fam­i­ly to be a bit more lov­ing towards one anoth­er. I think she’s become soft­er and more loving.

What themes can view­ers expect Bridger­ton to explore in this upcom­ing season?

Lies, deceit, and sex every­one will be pleased to hear! 

What do you do to immerse your­self in a time peri­od like Regency England?

At this stage with Philip­pa, she’s pret­ty much under the sur­face and acces­si­ble to me as soon as my wig and cos­tume go on. I don’t so much immerse myself in the peri­od because the world is an abstract ver­sion of the era. I lis­ten to a lot of Brit­ney Spears — I think it’s good for Philip­pa because she’s real­ly girly —  and I watch old episodes of Keep­ing Up With the Kardashians…

Why the Kardashians?

Because quite ear­ly on in the first sea­son, some of the pro­duc­ers men­tioned that the Feath­er­ing­tons are the Kar­dashi­ans of their time, and I thought that was a real­ly good ref­er­ence point because there wasn’t so much on the page char­ac­ter-wise. Then, dur­ing a cos­tume fit­ting, the design­er at the time kept going for labels that would be quite new mon­ey, and I thought that the Kar­dashi­ans encap­su­lat­ed all of this.

What has been your favourite moment to shoot in the series so far? 

My favourite scenes to shoot are always the fam­i­ly scenes because they’re a lot more inti­mate. I get to see Lor­raine Ash­bourne, and that’s real­ly fun.

How did you pre­pare with your co-stars to become a ‘real’ family?

There was­n’t any­thing that we did in par­tic­u­lar. We were liv­ing in each oth­er’s pock­ets for the first six months of shoot­ing the first sea­son because we were all on loca­tion and the stu­dio was­n’t ready yet. That helped us deep­en our rela­tion­ship. We’ve known each oth­er for quite a long time now, so by now it’s very sec­ond nature to be around each oth­er. Three girls always make for a sis­ter­ly dynam­ic any­way, so it works well!

What’s your favourite thing about your character?

The fact she doesn’t take every­thing so seri­ous­ly! She doesn’t run that deep and I think it’s refresh­ing to watch because a lot of the char­ac­ters in the show take them­selves quite seri­ous­ly. I guess that’s some­thing we have in com­mon. I also admire that she says what she’s think­ing — she’s hon­est and her­self regard­less of where she is.

What’s your expe­ri­ence shoot­ing pri­mar­i­ly in the studio?

It’s strange, but then the peo­ple build­ing the sets do an amaz­ing job. They’re wild­ly accu­rate to what it was in the begin­ning when we were on loca­tion. The only thing that’s jar­ring is hav­ing to use a mas­sive green screen every now and then because it reminds you that it’s not real.

What were your expec­ta­tions for the series when you first got the role?

I didn’t real­ly have any, because I’m also not the biggest fan of peri­od dra­ma. I won­dered who was going to watch it… I was also told that my char­ac­ter didn’t fea­ture too much in the book, so there wasn’t much I need­ed to know before­hand. I just thought that I’d have a great time doing it, which I did!

What’s one thing you had to learn when you got your role as Philippa?

There was an eighth-of-a-page scene in the first sea­son where Bessie Carter and I had to sing and play piano. We had to learn this song, and I had to learn to play the piano. I actu­al­ly got good at it, but Philippa’s sup­posed to be bad so I had to unlearn every­thing I’d learned, and it was all con­fus­ing but it came off funny.

How has this role chal­lenged you to become a bet­ter actress? 

It’s a high-pres­sure job, and I think it’s chal­lenged me to be brave. Even when it comes down to doing rehearsals, you’ll rehearse a scene and all of a sud­den, the whole crew will come in! They are the peo­ple I get wor­ried they’re going to think I’m crap. But that’s how it is: you’ve just got to do your job in front of loads of peo­ple and be confident!

How far has the pro­duc­tion team gone to prop­er­ly immerse you and the rest of the cast in Regency England?

They gave us eti­quette train­ing and we had a boot camp at the begin­ning. For Philip­pa per­son­al­ly, I threw all that away because her eti­quette is bad. She’s not prim and prop­er. But the team did a lot — they’d get us any­thing we want­ed real­ly. If we want to learn how to do tapes­tries, some­one will train us, the boys get fenc­ing lessons… All the things we get to do on that show are fantastic.

What’s the favourite thing that you’ve learned?

Prob­a­bly how to curt­sy prop­er­ly, and I loved the dance lessons! I’d want to be a dancer in anoth­er life.

Bridger­ton often address­es social issues with­in its his­tor­i­cal con­text. Are there any rel­e­vant themes or top­ics that Philip­pa explores in sea­son 3?

There are patri­ar­chal fac­tors that affect all the women in the show, but sea­son 3 throws a new one at Philip­pa when it comes to who will inher­it the Feath­er­ing­ton estate.

How did it feel to find your­self in a con­text where, although it’s not real, women don’t have the rights we do now?

I think I for­get about it most of the time, because the Feath­er­ing­ton fam­i­ly is such like a female-led house­hold. Lady Feath­er­ing­ton is a matri­arch. The girls are the boss­es. Sure, they have to mar­ry men, so they let some of them in, but they’re not women that can be told what to do…

Bridger­ton is known for its lav­ish cos­tumes and sets. Can you talk about any favourite cos­tumes view­ers can look for­ward to in the new season?

I’ve got some bangers to be fair. There’s a spark­ly one that I’m excit­ed for peo­ple to see in episode 8 of this sea­son. It was so spe­cial and marked a spe­cial scene for me so I love that one. It’s a sweet­heart cut and it’s iri­des­cent. It made me feel like Philip­pa was going from a girl to a woman. I’ve been pret­ty sur­prised by the glow-up she’s had in sea­son 3. She feels sex­i­er and more wom­an­ly, and that’s been inter­est­ing to play. Also, I wear this Ver­sace-type lit­tle num­ber that was real­ly, real­ly itchy to wear but looked real­ly cool!

Did you have to wear a corset at all?

Yes, for the first two sea­sons, but we did­n’t wear them for sea­son 3. That was so much bet­ter. I could eat lunch prop­er­ly! I real­ly enjoyed not hav­ing to wear a corset.

How is Philippa’s style sim­i­lar to your own?

It’s not. We have very dif­fer­ent palettes to put it polite­ly. I’m a streetwear gal — com­fort is key to me. I love my chunky train­ers and boots, and I wear a lot of black — nev­er heels or pink or pur­ple. It’s just not me. I guess we both enjoy a good acces­so­ry, but I’m more of a 925 sil­ver woman and she loves her jew­els. That said, I love that I get to wear it vic­ar­i­ous­ly through her.

If I met you out and about in the city, what would you be wearing?

I would be wear­ing just a bag­gy jean, I imag­ine. Prob­a­bly some Nike train­ers. A Ken­zo jumper, maybe some Carhartt, and a leather jack­et from a char­i­ty shop. I think that’s more my vibe these days, rather than buy­ing brands. I find cool stuff in there, and if it’s some­thing design­er then I’m winning!

Do you have a style tip for our readers?

Mash up tex­tures! It does­n’t mat­ter the colours and pat­terns as long as the shapes work together. 

What you wore dur­ing your shoot for OVERDUE must’ve been right up your alley then! What was your favourite look from that day?

I loved the orange TOVE dress. I real­ly felt like myself in it. There was this full Moschi­no look, and it was every­thing! I keep look­ing at one of the pho­tos in which I’m wear­ing that out­fit, it’s an absolute ten out of ten.

What do you think Philippa’s favourite brands would be if she exist­ed in the 21st century? 

I think she would wear some­thing that every­one knew was expen­sive. I think she would just want peo­ple to know how expen­sive she was, and I love that about her. She’s out­ra­geous, and I think she’d wear any­thing to get atten­tion. If she was chill­ing at home, it would be in a Ver­sace dress­ing gown and match­ing slip­pers. She’d prob­a­bly love Guc­ci, and new mon­ey brands that are high-end luxury.

Can you share a mem­o­rable anec­dote from your time on set? 

There’s a lot of down­time as you can imag­ine, and on one of these days Lorn Mac­don­ald, who plays Philipa’s hus­band, decid­ed to quiz me on my Dance Moms knowl­edge. I didn’t drop one ques­tion I was so proud of myself. I love Dance Moms and the fact that I was being paid for an after­noon to just sit around with my mate and be quizzed on it.

Have you kept any memen­tos from the set or your char­ac­ter’s costume?

After sea­son 2, I kept a lit­tle flower that was sewn onto my wed­ding dress and it’s so cute. Oth­er than that just my Regency under­wear! It holds no sig­nif­i­cance but it’s a good pair of pants. 

If view­ers had to take any­thing from Philip­pa, what would it be? 

Don’t be afraid to be wrong!

Many thanks to Har­ri­et for talk­ing to OVERDUE. Bridger­ton Sea­son 3 will be split into two 4‑episode parts, with Part 1 pre­mier­ing on May 16, 2024, fol­lowed by Part 2 on June 13, 2024.

Tal­ent Har­ri­et Cains
Pho­tog­ra­ph­er Andrew Kim­ber
Styl­ist Eve Fitz­patrick
Make-up Maeve McEl­holm
Hair Lau­ra Chad­wick
OVERDUE Assis­tant Leelou Reboh
Stu­dio & Retouch­ing Kim­ber Stu­dio
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