Nicola Coughlan, pictured here in February 2023.Getty Images
Nicola Coughlan, the Irish actress who shot to stardom thanks to “Derry Girls” and “Bridgerton,” graces the cover of TIME Magazine having been named to this year’s class of ‘Next Generation Leaders.’
"So overwhelming, such an honour," Co Galway native Coughlan posted on social media on Wednesday, October 16, sharing her TIME cover.
The cover feature comes after the Irish actress was included on the 2024 TIME100 Next list, which was revealed on October 2.
For the feature, Coughlan, 37, commented on the recent bizarre conversations about her body.
In the newest season of "Bridgerton," which debuted on Netflix in two segments in May and June, Coughlan and her co-star Luke Newton featured in a steamy sex scene, much to the delight of the show's many loyal fans.
However, responding to the sex scene, some critics took aim at Coughlan's body. In May, Zoe Strimpel, writing for The Spectator, argued that Coughlan and Newton's on-screen romance is implausible because, as Strimpel puts it, Coughlan is "not hot."
Strimpel wrote: "Coughlan is an actress of great value, and might be adored, but she is simply not plausible as the friend who would catch the handsome rich aristocrat Colin Bridgerton's eye in that way.
"She's not shapely - which can work as sexy even in Hollywood; she's fat. There's nothing wrong with fat - it's hardly a moral shortcoming – but a zest for equality and diversity (and in this case good acting) just isn't enough to make a fat girl who wins the prince remotely plausible."
The following month, Coughlan was told by a reporter at the Dublin premiere of the second part of the "Bridgerton" season that she was "very brave for this role."
Coughlan swiftly replied: "You know, it is hard, because I think women with my body type, women with perfect breasts, we do not see ourselves onscreen enough.
“I am very proud as a member of the perfect-breasts community. I hope you enjoy seeing them.”
Coughlan's response earned her cheers and applause from the audience.
@extradotie Nicola Coughlan had the perfect response to the body shamers as she premiered Bridgerton season 3 part 2 in Dublin 👏🏻 #fyp #bridgerton #polin #nicolacoughlan #lukenewton #colinbridgerton #penelopefeatherington #dublin @Netflix @Bridgerton ♬ original sound - Extradotie
Speaking about her "Bridgerton" sex scene, Coughlan said in her new TIME feature: “It was intimate, but it was also scary because of the level of nudity.
"We wanted to do justice to the story and this beautiful moment where he makes her feel really loved and they’re vulnerable together.
"I’m so proud of that scene.”
However, as TIME notes, Coughlan and Newton faced a "stark contrast" in the questions they fielded when promoting the season: "She was repeatedly asked about her body. She was called 'brave' for taking on the role."
Coughlan insisted: "Don’t call me brave. I have a cracking pair of boobs. There’s nothing brave about that, that’s actually just me showing them off."
Coughlan went on to lament how she's regarded as a "plus-size heroine" despite being "a few sizes below the average size of a woman in the UK."
She added: “I worked my arse off for that show. I barely saw my family and friends, and people were just going, ‘But your body ...'"
While Coughlan acknowledges that people may be speaking about her body in a complimentary manner, she says: “But 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.”