There are a lot of things Nicola Coughlan is passionate about — mental health, ADHD awareness, supporting the trans community — but body positivity is “not one of them.”
Since the first season of Bridgerton in 2020, the Irish actress has been a reluctant plus-size role model. Four seasons later, she’s still confused by the distinction.
“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,” Coughlan admitted in the April issue of Elle UK. “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, 39, recalls a particularly frustrating moment with a fan whose attempt to compliment the actress instead offended her.
“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—ing boring.”
Coughlan’s frustration hasn’t stopped people from talking about her body, however, despite her repeated requests. In 2022, the actress even made a personal plea to fans.
“If you have an opinion about my body please, please don’t share it with me,” she wrote in a since-deleted Instagram. “It’s really hard to take the weight of thousands of opinions on how you look being sent directly to you every day.”
Nicole Coughlan’s ‘Bridgerton’ character Penelope Featherington is now a mother in season 4
Credit: Liam Daniel/Netflix
These days, to silence the chatter, she’s trying some reverse psychology.
“The thing I say sometimes that pisses people off is I have no interest in body positivity,” Coughlan told Elle UK. “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.”
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Season 4 of Bridgerton should have fans talking about Coughlan’s character, Penelope Featherington, for a whole different reason: Her adorable baby Elliot! And the casting of her onscreen son could not have been better, the actress gushes.
“The baby looks so like me… We bonded right away, which was so cute. For comfort, he started pinching the top of my boob so hard, I ended up with a bruise. I went to the Emmy’s later that week, and I remember people thinking it was a hickey and I was like, ‘It’s a baby pinch!”’
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