Bridgerton's Nicola Coughlan Needs Fans To Stop Doing One Thing

Nicola Coughlan, one of Hollywood's brightest rising stars, will soon return as the beloved Penelope Featherington in Netflix's "Bridgerton" Season 2 — a project the actor is excited to be a part of again.

Coughlan, who also stars in the British sitcom "Derry Girls," told Elle in July 2021 that part of what she loves about being an actor is not imposing any of her "own preferences" on new characters. "I think there's a lot to be said about what's expected of women and how they're expected to fit into a certain sort of beauty mould," she said. "But you don't have to do that, you can march to the beat of your own drum and not look like carbon copies of each other."

Appearance is a large part of Coughlan's work onscreen and the actor has called out unfair criticism she has received for the way her body looks. "I'm very lucky to get to use my body to become all these fascinating women," Coughlan wrote for The Guardian in 2018. "But the prism through which my body is viewed is inescapable." Responding to a critic who called her a "fat girl," Coughlan continued, "I hope in the future that more people will talk about our work, our inspirations, our drive, rather than our looks." Now, Coughlan has made an announcement to fans, calling on them to stop doing this one thing.

"Bridgerton" star Nicola Coughlan took to Instagram to ask fans to stop commenting on her appearance. "If you have an opinion about my body please, please don't share it with me," Coighlan wrote in the caption of her latest selfie, for which she turned off comments. She explained, "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 said it's fine for people to have their opinions, "but I beg you not to send it to me directly," she wrote.

Coughlan has been vocal about the unfair standards that have been placed on her in the spotlight. "It was wild, because I was size 10 filming series one and I got called 'the big one'!" Coughlan said of "Bridgerton," per The Irish Times. "I was, like, 'Are you serious?'" She added, "We try and reduce women to the size of their body, and there's so much more than that."

Coughlan also voiced her body-shaming frustrations on Twitter in 2019. "Apropos of nothing but just thinking how it's mad people who everyone thinks are a size 10 on telly are actually a size 6 IRL." She continued, "Also people who are actually a size 10 people are immediately called 'BRAVE PLUS SIZED QUEEN' and it is just madness."