“Bridgerton” star Nicola Coughlan felt empowered by her Season 3 sex scenes with her co-star Luke Newton.
In fact, the actress told Stylist magazine in an interview released Tuesday that she insisted on more nudity between her and Newton’s characters to spite body shamers.
“I specifically asked for certain lines and moments to be included,” she recalled. “There’s one scene where I’m very naked on camera, and that was my idea, my choice.”
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“It just felt like the biggest ‘f–k you’ to all the conversation surrounding my body; it was amazingly empowering.”
She added, “I felt beautiful in the moment, and I thought: ‘When I’m 80, I want to look back on this and remember how fucking hot I looked!'”
Coughlan, who portrays Penelope Featherington on the hit Netflix series, had never filmed a sex scene before “Bridgerton” and gushed to the Los Angeles Times earlier this week about how comfortable she and Newton, who plays Colin Bridgerton, felt together.
“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 remembered.
The 37-year-old actress wasn’t always excited about her impending nude scenes, though. She told the Times she was horrified after she tried on a strapless thong which would serve as a protective garment during production.
“I went to the bathroom and looked in the full-length mirror. I was like, ‘Absolutely not,'” she recalled. “I hid it down the bottom of the laundry basket. I was like, ‘How am I going to do this?'”
Coughlan, however, is no stranger to facing uncomfortable situations — including body shamers.
She has been outspoken about body positivity and shutting haters down over the years, including via a 2022 Instagram post that she used to ask critics to leave her alone.
“Hello! So just a thing- if you have an opinion about my body please, please don’t share it with me,” she penned 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,” Coughlan continued.
She concluded, “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 [heart emoji].”
The first four episodes of Bridgerton Season 3 will begin streaming on Netflix on May 16. The next four will drop on June 13.
