Bridgerton’s Nicola Coughlan Hits Back at Body Shamers With Nude Scene: ‘F–k You’

Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan shared a message with body shamers while discussing her nude scenes in season 3.

“I specifically asked for certain lines and moments to be included,” Nicola, 37, told Stylist on Tuesday, May 14. “There’s one scene where I’m very naked on camera, and that was my idea, my choice.”

She continued, “It just felt like the biggest ‘f--k you’ to all the conversation surrounding my body. It was amazingly empowering.”

“I felt beautiful in the moment, and I thought, ‘When I’m 80, I want to look back on this and remember how f--king hot I looked!'” Nicola, who stars as Penelope Featherington on the Netflix series, added.

Nicola has had to deal with several body shamers over the years, while she candidly addressed her critics back in January 2022.

“Hello! So just a thing – if you have an opinion about my body please, please don’t share it with me,” she wrote via Instagram alongside a mirror selfie. “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.”

The Derry Girls actress continued, “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 but I beg you not to send it to me directly.”

Prior to the social media post, Nicola reflected on the downside of fame while speaking to Elle UK in January 2022. “Being famous is like being a dog on the Tube,” she said at the time. “It’s exactly the same energy. When you get on, everyone looks at you. Some people are so smiley, while some are afraid of you and don’t want to go near. Some people touch you without asking. I can still do the things I want to do, obviously, but it is different.”

Nicola added, “I went to the pub with my friend a while back and it was like being an animal at the zoo. People just watching and looking. And I remember one time I was taking my Invisalign out, and this person was staring me right in the eyes, which was quite weird. But, honestly, most people are so, so lovely.”

While she embraced being naked on camera, Nicola also had to film her first sex scene during season 3. She previously told the Los Angeles Times that her scene partner Luke Newton, who plays Colin Bridgerton, made her feel comfortable during the filming process.

“By the end of the day, we were both lying under a blanket, not clothed, just chillin’. We were like, ‘This is why nudists do it,'” she recalled in an interview published on May 12.