Bridgerton's New Star
Season 2 of the Shondaland hit introduces a favourite character, Newton, Kate Sharma's mischievous corgi. A beloved pup in the pages of Julia Quinn's The Viscount Who Loved Me, Newton makes the season 2 cast complete.
Lovers of Quinn's novel will already know that Newton loves to insert himself into situations and cause trouble. But it sounds like the fluffy actor behind him, Austin, was much the same. Charithra Chandran (Edwina), Simone Ashley (Kate), and Jonathan Bailey (Anthony) all have stories of Austin's devil-may-care attitude and fondness for treats.
"Austin was not necessarily the best behaved dog," laughs Chandran. "But there were so many hilarious moments. There was a scene where he's outside and you had to get him to sit by feeding him treats. At one point, he was so full on all the treats, he just fell asleep on the set in the middle of his shot."
Bailey was also beholden to Austin's love of snacks. "Austin played Newton and it's a sterling, stunning performance, but do you know what? We didn't get on," he quips. "He just loved the sausage and there's nothing wrong with that, but it was more the way I had to hold little crumbs of sausage in my hand to try and get him to jump in my lap."
But Ashley felt she formed a bond with Austin worthy of Kate and Newton's relationship. "I'm really good with dogs, so he responded to me well," she says. "He is a little bit sassy and goes off and does his own thing, but I like to think when we were together, he listened to me. Whenever we would do a line run and Newton was there, he would just get in the middle of the circle and roll on his back and be like, 'Hey, what's up?' That was quite cute."
07.05.2022
