‘Bridgerton’ Star Nicola Coughlan Shuts Down Body-Shamers By Choosing To Be ‘Very Naked On Camera’
“Bridgerton” star Nicola Coughlan clapped back at her body-shamers in the best way.
In a new interview with the U.K.’s Stylist, the actress opened up about her decision to collaborate with the Netflix show’s intimacy coordinator, Lizzy Talbot, in order to be “very naked on camera” to get back at trolls who criticized her appearance.
“I specifically asked for certain lines and moments to be included,” Coughlan recalled. “There’s one scene where I’m very naked on camera, and that was my idea, my choice. It just felt like the biggest ‘fuck you’ to all the conversation surrounding my body; it was amazingly empowering.”
“I felt beautiful in the moment, and I thought: ‘When I’m 80, I want to look back on this and remember how fucking hot I looked!’” she added of the scene.
Fans on X (formerly Twitter) cheered on the Irish actress for shutting down her haters.
as someone who has been a “bigger girl” their entire life, to see someone who represents ME as the leading lady for honestly the first time in my 34 years, is very emotional for me. i love nicola immensely and i cannot wait to see penelope get her time to shine. https://t.co/sGqJFGfg6P
— Caitlin Michelle ✵ (@omfgitscaitlin) May 14, 2024
“When i’m 80 i want to look back on this and remember how fucking hot i looked.”
AS YOU SHOUD NICOLA COUGHLAN!!! pic.twitter.com/CbMuDGts5f— Grace☽ (@_gracieling) May 14, 2024
YES QUEEN!!!!! Body positivity is so so important, go Nicola for leading the path for curvy and/or +size women to not be ashamed of their beautiful body and show it in a sexy way instead of the cliché comedic way. #Bridgertonhttps://t.co/3NHOtR1MoSpic.twitter.com/cF733f4Y8B
— 𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐋 🌺 (@Angeliiiiique) May 14, 2024
Reading the quotes to this tweet and crying 🥺
Nicola Coughlan, I hope you realise how inspiring you are to a lot of people 💖 https://t.co/SolBmKhRqc— Ingrid 💚 (@polinlover3) May 14, 2024
ugh she makes me want to be more confident in myself I love her an unexplainable amount
— pito | one week to s3 (@ilovebroccoli_8) May 14, 2024
Coughlan’s comments come after she pleaded with the internet to stop judging her body.
“If you have an opinion about my body please, please don’t share it with me ... It’s really hard to take the weight of thousands of opinions on how you look being sent directly to you every day,” she wrote in a since-deleted Instagram post in January 2022.
Despite having the gusto to shut down her critics, Coughlan, who plays Penelope Featherington in the show, admitted that preparing to strip down for her first-ever sex scene wasn’t exactly easy.
In fact, she confessed she kicked back a margarita just to try on the skimpy strapless thong used to cover up her lady bits for the nude scene.
“I went to the bathroom and looked in the full-length mirror, I was like: ‘Absolutely not!’ I hid it down the bottom of the laundry basket. I was like: ‘How am I going to do this?’” Coughlan told Stylist.
But once she got over her initial jitters, Coughlan said she became surprisingly comfortable filming the X-rated scene with her co-star Luke Newton, who plays her character’s love interest, Colin Bridgerton.
“By the end of the day, we were both lying under a blanket, not clothed, just chilling,” she explained. “We were like: ‘This is why nudists do it.’”
Season 3 of “Bridgerton” hits Netflix on Thursday.