Nicola Coughlan is sick and tired of the commentary about her body following her starring role on Bridgerton season 3.
The Irish actress spoke to TIME for a new cover story, and addressed the endless questions she got about her body while promoting the Netflix series alongside costar Luke Newton—especially the use of the word "brave" with regards to Coughlan filming nude scenes.
"Don’t call me brave," she said. "I have a cracking pair of boobs. There’s nothing brave about that, that’s actually just me showing them off."
Explaining why she objects to this type of discourse, Coughlan continued, "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.' I worked my arse off for that show. I barely saw my family and friends, and people were just going, 'But your body…'"
Addressing whether these comments can be interpreted as complimentary, the Derry Girls alum said, "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 responded to all the talk about her body on multiple occasions while promoting Bridgerton's latest season.
Speaking to Stylist in May, the actress revealed that being "very naked" on the show was her decision. "It just felt like the biggest ‘f*** you’ to all the conversation surrounding my body," she said. "It was amazingly empowering."
Later that month, she told theSkimm, "We had a lot of control and we chose how naked we were."
She added, "People said, you know, she did it to show the body shamers. But I didn't. I did it completely selfishly. I did it because I wanted to do it, and there's something incredibly empowering in that."
By June, Coughlan appeared to be tired of the discourse, and chose to deflect with humor. "You know, it is hard because I think women with my body type—women with perfect breasts—we don’t get to see ourselves onscreen enough," she told one reporter. "And I’m very proud as a member of the perfect breasts community. I hope you enjoy seeing them." Tell 'em, Nic!
