Nicola Coughlan Chose to Be "Very Naked" in 'Bridgerton' in Response to "All the Conversation Surrounding My Body"
"It was amazingly empowering.”
Actress Nicola Coughlan is revealing the real reason why she decided to (nearly) bare it all on-screen for the hit Netflix show Bridgerton.
In a recent interview with Stylist, the star said she closely collaborated with the show's intimacy coordinator, Lizzy Talbot, prior to filming some of Bridgerton's steamiest sex scenes yet.
“You go: 'OK, what do I want to show? What don’t I want to show? What’s scripted, and what do I want to add?'” she said. "I specifically asked for certain lines and moments to be included."
Coughlan said there was one scene in particular where she was "very naked on camera," adding that it "was my idea, my choice."
“It just felt like the biggest ‘f*** you’ to all the conversation surrounding my body," she added. "It was amazingly empowering.”
Coughlan went on to say that she "felt beautiful in the moment."
"I thought: ‘When I’m 80, I want to look back on this and remember how f****** hot I looked!’”
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In a since-deleted Instagram post first shared in 2022, the Derry Girls actress opened up about people's seemingly never-ending opinions about her body and why she's had enough of them.
“If you have an opinion about my body please, please don’t share it with me,” she posted at the time, as reported by HuffPo. “Most people are being nice and not trying to be offensive but I am just one real life human being and it’s really hard to take the weight of thousands of opinions on how you look being sent directly to you every day.
“If you have an opinion about me that’s OK, I understand I’m on TV and that people will have things to think and say," she continued in the post, "but I beg you not to send it to me directly.”
A post shared by Nicola Coughlan
A photo posted by nicolacoughlan on
In a previous interview with the Irish Times, Coughlan said that despite all the outside noise and unnecessary comments about her body, all she cares about "is the work" she does as an actor and entertainer.
"Bodies change—if I lose weight or gain weight or I do anything it’s no one’s business," she said at the time. "All I care about is doing good acting and being judged on that."
Danielle Campoamor is Marie Claire's weekend editor covering all things news, celebrity, politics, culture, live events, and more. In addition, she is an award-winning freelance writer and former NBC journalist with over a decade of digital media experience covering mental health, reproductive justice, abortion access, maternal mortality, gun violence, climate change, politics, celebrity news, culture, online trends, wellness, gender-based violence and other feminist issues. You can find her work in The New York Times, Washington Post, TIME, New York Magazine, CNN, MSNBC, NBC, TODAY, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Harper's Bazaar, Marie Claire, InStyle, Playboy, Teen Vogue, Glamour, The Daily Beast, Mother Jones, Prism, Newsweek, Slate, HuffPost and more. She currently lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband and their two feral sons. When she is not writing, editing or doom scrolling she enjoys reading, cooking, debating current events and politics, traveling to Seattle to see her dear friends and losing Pokémon battles against her ruthless offspring. You can find her on X, Instagram, Threads, Facebook and all the places.
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