Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan has declared she has “no interest in body positivity” and finds the constant focus on her appearance tedious.
The Irish actress, 39, who portrays Penelope Bridgerton in the Netflix period drama, expressed frustration at being categorised as plus-size despite wearing a size eight corset during filming.
“The thing I say sometimes that pisses people off is I have no interest in body positivity,” she told Elle UK’s April issue.
“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.”
Ms Coughlan said she has ‘no interest’ in body positivity
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Nicola Coughlan
The Derry Girls star questioned society’s standards, asking: “How f***ed are we that I am the biggest woman you want to see on screen?”
Ms Coughlan revealed that an encounter with an intoxicated fan in a bathroom epitomised her discomfort with the body-focused attention.
“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,'” she recalled.
The actress emphasised how disheartening it feels when extensive professional effort gets overshadowed by physical appearance.
Nicola Coughlan portrays Penelope Bridgerton in the Netflix period drama
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NETFLIX
“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,” she said.
During production of the third series, which centred on Penelope’s romance with Luke Newton’s Colin Bridgerton, Ms Coughlan had trained intensively and was approximately a size 10.
The interview also touched on Ms Coughlan’s ADHD diagnosis, which she described as transformative for her self-understanding.
Ms Coughlan feels her extensive professional effort gets overshadowed by physical appearance
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GETTY
“It feels like I got the handbook to my brain that I wasn’t given when I was born,” she explained.
“I understand things a bit better now, and I give myself a little more grace.”
The actress also reflected on her fortune in escaping the typecasting that often follows breakout television roles.
“I think there was a risk with Derry Girls being such a success, kind of out of nowhere… It was incredible, but you do have a moment where you go, ‘Am I going to play this character forever?'” she admitted.
Ms Coughlan credited Bridgerton with offering an immediate departure from her portrayal of panicky student Clare Devlin in the Channel 4 comedy.
The actress’s career has spanned an impressive range of projects since her breakthrough as the anxious teenager Clare Devlin.
Beyond Bridgerton, Coughlan appeared in the blockbuster film Barbie and starred in Channel 4’s Big Mood, earning a Bafta nomination for the latter.
Nicola Coughlan on the set of Bridgerton
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NETFLIX
She also took to the stage at the National Theatre in The Playboy of the Western World, performing alongside her Derry Girls co-star Siobhan McSweeney.
Recalling a stage door interaction during that production, she shared: “Someone at the stage door very coyishly said, ‘You weren’t anything like your character in Bridgerton,’ and I went, ‘Ah, thank God.'”
Her next project sees her joining Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy in The Magic Faraway Tree, where she will play Silky the fairy.
