Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan has voiced her profound disinterest in the concept of “body positivity,” labelling discussions about her size as “boring” and a distraction from her craft.
The 39-year-old Irish actor, celebrated for her role as Penelope Featherington in the Netflix regency drama and Clare Devlin in Channel 4’s Derry Girls, shared her candid views in an interview with Elle UK.
“The thing I say sometimes that pisses people off is I have no interest in body positivity,” Coughlan stated. “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.”
Coughlan highlighted the absurdity of being praised as a “plus-size” actress despite being a size 10. Recalling filming nude scenes for Bridgerton, she revealed, “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.”
She continued, questioning societal perceptions: “Then people talked about how I was plus size and I was like, ‘How f***** are we that I am the biggest woman you want to see on screen?’”
The actress recounted an uncomfortable encounter with a fan: “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 expressed deep frustration that her dedication to her work is often overshadowed by physical appearance. “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****** boring.”
In a more personal revelation, Coughlan also spoke about finding “grace” since receiving her ADHD diagnosis. “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.”
Beyond Bridgerton, Coughlan’s notable credits include the hit film Barbie, Channel 4’s Big Mood, which earned her a Bafta nomination, and a National Theatre production of The Playboy Of The Western World.
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The full interview is featured in the April issue of Elle UK, available from 10 March.
