‘Bridgerton’ star Nicola Coughlan reveals her mum’s reaction to sex scenes
Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan has revealed her mother wasn’t jumping for joy seeing her daughter taking part in sex scenes in the hit Netflix show’s third season.
In the latest season, Coughlan’s Penelope Featherington embarked upon a steamy relationship with Luke Newton’s Colin Bridgerton, after the two characters had been friends for the previous seasons. When she appeared on The Graham Norton Show, the 37-year-old star revealed that Featherington’s blossoming was a different kettle of fish for her as an actor. For one thing, it was so different from the first two seasons of Bridgerton, but it was also a million miles away from the role that shot her to fame on Derry Girls.
Coughlan laughed, “I realised I was 35 when I was filming the season, and I’d never played an adult. I was like, ‘How do I do this?’ The first two series, I looked a lot like Spongebob Squarepants: very curly, ginger, yellow dress, sort of a tent situation going on. But then it was weird having to play the romantic lead and it’s a sexy show. A lot of sexy things happen in it, and then I realised I was going to have to do the sexy things, and I was like, ‘Right.'”
On top of having to wrap her head around filming sex scenes for the first time, though, Coughlan also had the added factor of knowing her mum didn’t exactly approve. She said, “My mother was so mad at me about those scenes – as if they were my fault! So, I didn’t go to the screening with her.”
Was it empowering for Coughlan to film the scenes?
Despite her mother’s disapproving reaction and her trepidation about doing something she’d never done before on camera, Coughlan has actually stated she felt the sex scenes were empowering and liberating.
As an actress whose body doesn’t conform to the usual Hollywood stereotype, Coughlan has unfortunately come in for body shaming on the internet. However, the Bridgerton sex scenes wound up filling her with confidence about her body, instead of doing the opposite.
She told Stylist magazine, “There’s one scene where I’m very naked on camera, and that was my idea, my choice. It just felt like the biggest ‘fuck 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 fucking hot I looked.'”