Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
For Nicola Coughlan, global fame through Bridgerton has come with intense scrutiny — not just of her performance, but of her body. The actor, who plays the beloved Penelope Featherington in the Netflix hit, recently opened up about an uncomfortable encounter with a fan that left her deeply unsettled and highlighted the persistent fixation on her appearance.
Speaking about the experience with Elle UK Magazine, Coughlan recalled a particularly awkward moment when a drunk fan approached her in a bathroom and began commenting on her body.
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“I remember this really drunk girl once talking to me in a bathroom being like, ‘I loved Bridgerton because of your body,’” she said. “And she started talking about my body, and I was like, ‘I want to die. I hate this so much,'” she added.
The actor explained that such moments can feel disheartening, especially after the months of effort that go into filming a series. “You work on something for months and months, you don’t see your family, you really dedicate yourself, and then it comes down to what you look like — it’s so boring,” she added.
Coughlan also reflected on the commentary she received during the filming of the show’s third season. Despite maintaining a strict fitness routine while shooting, she found herself repeatedly labelled “plus-size” online.
“When I was shooting that series, I was exercising a lot because I knew I had to. I had lost a bunch of weight — I was probably a size 10 and one of the corsets was a size 8,” she said. “And then people talked about how I was plus-size, and I was like, ‘How messed up are we that I am the biggest woman you want to see on screen?’”
The conversation around her body has followed the actor since the early days of Bridgerton. In 2022, Coughlan had already addressed the issue in a candid message on social media, asking people to stop sending unsolicited opinions about her appearance.
“If you have an opinion about my body please, please don’t share it with me,” she wrote at the time. “It’s really hard to take the weight of thousands of opinions on how you look being sent directly to you every day.”
For Coughlan, the focus has always been on her craft rather than her physical appearance. In an interview with the Irish Times, she emphasised that her priority remains the work.
“All I care about is the work,” she said. “Bodies change — if I lose weight or gain weight, or I do anything, it’s no one’s business. All I care about is doing good acting and being judged on that.”
Interestingly, the actor decided to address the noise surrounding her body in a bold way during the third season of Bridgerton, which premiered in 2024. Coughlan revealed that she intentionally asked for certain creative choices to be included in the show.
One particular moment – where she appears nude on screen – was her idea.
“There’s one scene where I’m very naked on camera, and that was my idea, my choice,” she explained. “It just felt like the biggest ‘f**k you’ to all the conversation surrounding my body. It was amazingly empowering.”
Looking back, the actor says the decision felt liberating rather than intimidating. “I felt beautiful in the moment,” she said. “And I thought, when I’m 80, I want to look back on this and remember how hot I looked.”
Bridgerton Season 4 is currently streaming on Netflix.
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
