The actress who plays Penelope Featherington on the hit historical drama “Bridgerton” is quite fed up with viewers talking to her about her body. Nicola Coughlan addressed the ongoing issue by snapping a photo of herself and captioning it with a message for would-be body shamers and critics, who she says are constantly reaching out to her with their opinions.
“Hello! So just a thing- if you have an opinion about my body please, please don’t share it with me,” the Irish actress wrote in the photo caption.
“Most people are being nice and not trying to be offensive but I am just one real life human being and it’s really hard to take the weight of thousands of opinions on how you look being sent directly to you every day,” she continued.
“If you have an opinion about me that’s ok, I understand I’m on TV and that people will have things to think and say but I beg you not to send it to me directly.”
It wasn’t the first time the 35-year-old star spoke on the topic. According to CNN, last year she had a scathing reply for a Twitter user who wrote, “The fat girl from Bridgerton is wearing a black cardigan at the Golden Globes.” This observation prompted Coughlan to share an older piece she had published in The Guardian called “Critics, judge me for my work in Derry Girls and on the stage, not on my body.”
She tweeted a thread along with the post which said: “Also can we please stop asking women about their weight in interviews, especially when it’s completely irrelevant. I’m seeing a lot of interviews from 10 years ago where people go “Oh weren’t the questions so inappropriate!” unfortunately it’s still happening.”
She continued, “Every time I’m asked about my body in an interview it makes me deeply uncomfortable and so sad I’m not just allowed to just talk about the job I do that I so love.”
Coughlan’s comments were publicized around the same time as a fellow Hollywood actress, “Yellowjackets” actress Melanie Lynskey. Last week, Lynskey said the body shamers have been out in force, which ultimately prompted her co-stars to stand up for her.
“Most egregious are the ‘I care about her health!!’ people… B****, you don’t see me on my Peloton! You don’t see me running through the park with my child. Skinny does not always equal healthy,” Lynskey said in a tweet.
Next, she addressed fans of the show who claimed it wasn’t realistic that she had an on-screen relationship with an attractive co-star. Lynskey shared, “I’m just like, ‘Wow, really? That’s where people’s heads are at, that the most important thing is being thin or young?'”
Lynskey has addressed body shamers before, telling Rolling Stone that even a member of the “Yellowjackets” production team made a derogatory comment about her physique.
“They were asking me, ‘What do you plan to do? I’m sure the producers will get you a trainer. They’d love to help you with this,’” she said.