Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan has ‘no interest in body positivity’

By Lauren Del Fabbro, Press Association Entertainment Reporter

Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan has said she has “no interest in body positivity” and that she finds it “boring” when people talk about her size.

The Galway actress, 39, known for playing panicky student Clare Devlin on Channel 4 comedy Derry Girls, stars in the Netflix regency series Bridgerton as Penelope Bridgerton.

Despite the success of the show, she has described how disappointing it is that so many people praise her body size and talk about her weight.

Fronting the cover of Elle UK’s April issue, Coughlan told the magazine: “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.”

The actress added that despite being a size 10, she will still be praised as someone who appears on screen as a plus-size actress, comments which she finds “boring”.

Speaking about the reaction to her nude scenes on the show, she said: “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.

“Then people talked about how I was plus size and I was like, ‘How f****d are we that I am the biggest woman you want to see on screen?’

“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’.

“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.”

Coughlan also told the magazine that she gives herself more “grace” since receiving her ADHD diagnosis.

She said: “It feels like I got the handbook to my brain that I wasn’t given when I was born.

“I understand things a bit better now, and I give myself a little more grace.”

Coughlan is also known for starring in the hit movie Barbie as well as Channel 4’s Big Mood, a role which secured her a Bafta nomination.

She also appeared in a National Theatre production of The Playboy Of The Western World alongside her Derry Girls co-star Siobhan McSweeney.

The full interview can be read in the April issue of Elle UK, which goes on sale on March 10th.