Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan is getting real about being subjected to body-shaming comments.
“You know what was really bizarre was, when I was shooting that series, I was exercising a lot because I knew I had to,” Coughlan, 39, told Elle UK in a Wednesday, March 4, profile, when asked about filming her nude scenes. “I had lost a bunch of weight, [and] I was probably a size 10 and one of the corsets was a size 8.”
She continued, “And then people talked about how I was plus size and I was like, ‘How f***ed are we that I am the biggest woman you want to see on screen?’”
Coughlan stars as Penelope Bridgerton (née Featherington) on Netflix’s Bridgerton. The actress led season 3, which chronicled Penelope’s love story with Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) amid her growing career as then-anonymous gossip columnist Lady Whistledown.
Despite criticism of her body, the actress has also inspired another cohort of fans.
“I remember this really drunk girl once talking to me in a bathroom being like, ‘I loved [Bridgerton] because of your body,’ and started talking about my body,” Coughlan recalled to the outlet. “I was like, ‘I want to die. I hate this so much.’ It’s really hard when you work on something for months and months of your life, you don’t see your family, you really dedicate yourself and then it comes down to what you look like. It’s so f***ing boring.”
Coughlan has long been a fierce body positive advocate, even requesting her nude scene in Bridgerton.
“I specifically asked for certain lines and moments to be included,” she told Stylist magazine in May 2024. “There’s one scene where I’m very naked on camera, and that was my idea, my choice. It just felt like the biggest ‘f*** you’ to all the conversation surrounding my body. It was amazingly empowering.”
According to Coughlan, she “felt beautiful” in the moment.
“I thought, ‘When I’m 80, I want to look back on this and remember how f***ing hot I looked!’” she quipped to the magazine.
Weeks later, Coughlan once again praised the show’s inclusion of her nude scene.
“You know, it is hard, ’cause I think women with my body type — women with perfect breasts — we do not get to see ourselves onscreen enough,” she joked during a June 2024 panel conversation. “I am a very proud member of the perfect breasts community, and I hope you enjoy seeing them.”
Coughlan reprised her role on Bridgerton season 4, which returned to Netflix last month.
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