Nicola Coughlan, who recently appeared in the fourth season of the acclaimed Netflix series Bridgerton, spoke out about fans of the show who commented on her body after her intimate scenes on the show. The 39-year-old actress claimed that she was not into body positivity and slammed fans for their “plus-size” comments.
Nicola Coughlan calls out body-shaming comments on her Bridgerton role
Nicola Coughlan, who plays Penelope on Bridgerton, recently sat down for an interview with Elle. There she went over various things, including her experience with body image issues.
The actress strongly advocates for ADHD and encourages others to get tested. However, she does not consider herself a part of the body-positivity camp.
“The thing I say sometimes that pisses people off is I have no interest in body positivity,” Coughlan said, “When I was a kid growing up, I never thought about that. I didn’t look at actors and think about their bodies. So, I actually don’t care.” She added, “There’s a lot of things I’m passionate about, it’s not one of them… That’s someone else’s thing. It’s not mine.”
However, this does not mean that Coughlan has not dealt with trolls and critics commenting on her body. This has escalated, especially after her intimate scenes in Bridgerton.
“You know what was really bizarre was, when I was shooting that series, I was exercising a lot because I knew I had to, so I had lost a bunch of weight – I was probably a size 10 and one of the corsets was a size 8. And then people talked about how I was plus size and I was like, ‘How f*cked are we that I am the biggest woman you want to see on screen?’” Coughlan said, reacting to comments about her scene in Bridgerton.
Sometimes, this followed her around when she was not working, too. “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, and 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*cking boring,” she recalled.
Coughlan will soon appear in The Magic Faraway Tree.
