She's known for portraying high society's very own Gossip Girl, Lady Whistledown (aka Penelope Featherington), in Netflix's hit show Bridgerton, but now Irish actress Nicola Coughlan has opened up about the talk around her weight while filming the programme.
In a new interview with Elle, Nicola, 38, opened up about starring as the diamond of the season in the third series of the show, which saw her involved in a number of steamy scenes with her on-screen love interest, Luke Newton.
© Dave Benett/Getty Images for TheShe told the publication: "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."
The Derry Girls actress added that, despite being between a size 8 and 10, she's still seen by many as a 'plus size' actress.
Nicola explained: "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. And then people talked about how I was plus size, and I was like, 'How [expletive] are we that I am the biggest woman you want to see on screen?"
© NetflixShe added: "The thing I say sometimes that pisses people off is I have no interest in body positivity. 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.
"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. 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," Nicola said.
Nicola's rising star
Since launching onto our screens in 2018 as Clare Devlin in Derry Girls, Nicola couldn't have been more in demand and is now set to star alongside Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy in the Magic Faraway Tree as Silky the fairy.
Talking about the feature film, Nicola penned: "This is Silky- so called because of her silky, golden hair (naturally). This movie is really, really, really special, and I can’t wait for you all to see it. #TheMagicFarawayTree trailer coming very soon…."
