Nicola Coughlan Hates That She's Considered A "Plus-Size Heroine"
“I have a cracking pair of boobs. There’s nothing brave about that.”
Both Nicola Coughlan and Luke Newton put their bodies on display in the steamy third season of Bridgerton, but they received some difference responses. For some reason, Coughlan was called “brave” for nude scenes, an adjective that notably wasn’t used for her equally naked co-star. The actor recently opened up about why she finds that term “insane and so insulting.”
Coughlan explained why she can’t stand being called “brave” for showing off her body in an Oct. 16 TIME profile. “Don’t call me brave,” the actor said. “I have a cracking pair of boobs. There’s nothing brave about that, that’s actually just me showing them off.”
The remark echoes the response Coughlan gave to a journalist who used that word to describe her revealing Bridgerton scenes when Season 3 was airing. “You know, it is hard ’cause I think women with my body type, women with perfect breasts — we do not see ourselves onscreen enough,” Coughlan said at the time. “I am very proud as a member of the perfect-breasts community. I hope you enjoy seeing them.”
In her TIME interview, Coughlan expanded on why she doesn’t like being held up as a “plus-size heroine.”
“I’m a few sizes below the average size of a woman in the U.K. and I’m seen as a ‘plus-size heroine,’” Coughlan said. “I worked my arse off for that show. I barely saw my family and friends, and people were just going, ‘But your body.’ ... I don’t take it as nice. Making it about how I look is reductive and boring. What if I was suddenly going to play a ballerina and lose a sh*t ton of weight, are you not going to like me anymore? That’s insane and so insulting.”
Coughlan will be reprising her role as Penelope Bridgerton (née Featherington) in the upcoming fourth season of Bridgerton, though her character is now done with all that dating drama. “It's very fun to be playing like a happily married person with a very cute baby,” Coughlan told Good Morning America. “It feels like they went through all their strife last time. So they get to come back and just be in love and have the best time together.”
