Even if you’ve never watched a minute of Bridgerton, you probably know that the romantic drama is a major hit that nearly everyone with a Netflix subscription tunes in to as soon as a new season is upon us. Well, that and the fact that the show has featured some pretty legendary (and sometimes Taylor Swift-filled) sexytimes. Now, star Nicola Coughlan has revealed that she actually requested certain Bridgerton Season 3 scenes as “the biggest fuck you” to her body shamers.
What Did Bridgerton’s Nicola Coughlan Say About Certain Season 3 Scenes Responding To Her Body Shamers?
While enjoying Bridgerton’s sexiest scenes is all well and good, we know that anytime someone is in the public eye their appearance becomes a major point of conversation, and, frequently, that conversation is unnecessarily mean. This can be especially true when someone dares to bare all for a role, but Penelope Featherington’s portrayer, Nicola Coughlan, actually used Pen and Colin’s time as the main couple of Season 3 to respond to everyone who’s been body shaming her. As she told Stylist (via Business Insider):
I specifically asked for certain lines and moments to be included. 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.
There are several other stars who’ve spoken out about being shamed for the way they look, and their size, especially. Billie Eilish has opened up about how she combats the constant public conversation about how she looks, and others like Yellowjackets star Melanie Lynskey has expressed anger over body shaming while singer/talk show host Kelly Clarkson has also been unafraid to call people out for it. But, seemingly few have taken the criticisms of how they look and made a conscious decision to bare their bodies specifically as a way to tell all those critics to fuck off.
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The sexually explicit Netflix project has used an intimacy coordinator, Lizzy Talbot, since the first season to help shepherd all the sex and intimacy scenes (as most productions now do), so Coughlan and co-star Luke Newton spent plenty of time with her working out exact choreography, as well as what they were and were not willing to show/do on camera. Despite the “silly” way it can sometimes lead to filming sex scenes, the stars of the show value having Talbot work with them so that they can feel as comfortable as possible.
That led to Coughlan feeling very confident while shooting the scene in question, and she continued:
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!’ People ask ignorant questions like, ‘How do you feel knowing anyone can go on Netflix and see you naked?’ and my answer is I feel great about it, because not only did I consent to it but I drove it. There’s a reason this show became a phenomenon: it’s about women feeling desire, owning their sexuality, and driving the charge in those situations rather than just being an object of a man’s affections.
I hope all body shamers take note, because the star is clearly “driving the charge” when it comes to how she sees herself and lets others see her, so she’ll probably continue to tell all the haters “fuck you” in as many ways possible for the forseeable future.