Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan has ‘no interest in body positivity’

Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan has said she has “no interest in body positivity” and that she finds it “boring” when people talk about her size.

The Irish actress, 39, known for playing panicky student Clare Devlin on Channel 4 comedy Derry Girls, stars in the Netflix regency series Bridgerton as Penelope Bridgerton.

Fronting the cover of Elle UK’s April issue, Coughlan told the magazine: “The thing I say sometimes that pisses people off is I have no interest in body positivity.

“When I was a kid growing up, I never thought about that. I didn’t look at actors and think about their bodies. So, I actually don’t care.

“There’s a lot of things I’m passionate about, it’s not one of them… That’s someone else’s thing. It’s not mine.”

The actress added that despite being a size 10, she will still be praised as someone who appears on screen as a plus-size actress, comments which she finds “boring”.

“Then people talked about how I was plus size and I was like, ‘How f***** are we that I am the biggest woman you want to see on screen?’

“I remember this really drunk girl once talking to me in a bathroom being like, ‘I loved (Bridgerton) because of your body’ and started talking about my body, and I was like, ‘I want to die. I hate this so much’.

“It’s really hard when you work on something for months and months of your life, you don’t see your family, you really dedicate yourself and then it comes down to what you look like – it’s so f****** boring.”

She said: “It feels like I got the handbook to my brain that I wasn’t given when I was born.

“I understand things a bit better now, and I give myself a little more grace.”

Coughlan is also known for starring in the hit movie Barbie as well as Channel 4’s Big Mood, a role which secured her a Bafta nomination.

She also appeared in a National Theatre production of The Playboy Of The Western World alongside her Derry Girls co-star Siobhan McSweeney.

The full interview can be read in the April issue of Elle UK, which goes on sale on March 10.