“[She] was so mad at me.”
In season three of Bridgerton, Teen Vogue cover star Nicola Coughlan had a handful of intimate and steamy scenes alongside costar Luke Newton — and not everyone in her family was pleased with them.
In a new appearance on The Graham Norton Show, Coughlan revealed her mom was not a fan of the more explicit scenes from her leading season, which caused a mini falling out in her family. “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,” Coughlan revealed to the host, as noted by the London Evening Standard.
While promoting season 3, Newton revealed to Teen Vogue that Coughlan had actually asked “for a version of the show without the steamy scenes for her family,” which we are guessing is mom-approved, but changing the entire screening for momma Coughlan might have been too much to ask.
That said, during her appearance in the show, Coughlan also opened up about how cathartic it was for her to present a more mature version of herself during Birdgerton season 3. “I realized I was 35 when I was filming the season, and I’d never played an adult. I was like, ‘How do I do this?’ ” she said. “[In] the first two series, I looked a lot like Spongebob Squarepants, very curly, ginger [hair], yellow dress, sort of a tent situation going on.”
She continued saying that “it was weird having to play the romantic lead” because Bridgerton is, after all, “a sexy show.” She added: “A lot of sexy things happen in it, and then I realized I was going to have to do the sexy things, and I was like, ‘Right.’”
It might have been intimidating at first, but Coughlan learned to like the spotlight and embraced the intimacy. In an interview back in May, the Irish star revealed she worked closely with the show’s intimacy coordinator, Lizzy Talbot, to make her nude scenes as poignant as possible.
“I specifically asked for certain lines and moments to be included,” Coughlan explained at the time. “There’s one scene where I’m very naked on camera, and that was my idea, my choice. It just felt like the biggest ‘f*ck you’ to all the conversation surrounding my body; it was amazingly empowering.” She added: “I thought: ‘When I’m 80, I want to look back on this and remember how f*cking hot I looked!’”
Coughlan even poked fun at people calling her “brave” for taking the nude scenes in stride. “You know it is hard because I think women with my body type — women with perfect breasts, we don’t get to see ourselves on screen enough, and I’m very proud as a member of the perfect breast community.”
She might not be the leading lady anymore, but Nicola Coughlan’s Penelope Featherington (now Bridgerton) will still be part of the upcoming Bridgerton Season 4, which began filming in September 2024.
