Bridgerton’s Nicola Coughlan recalls mom’s angry reaction over stripping scene

Nicola Coughlan is opening up about how playing “an adult” wasn’t all fun and games despite her creative input.

Coughlan, 37, whose character Penelope Featherington took the lead in the third season of Bridgerton, revealed on the December 13 episode of The Graham Norton Show how upset her mother was over her racy scenes.

“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,” she said, per the London Evening Standard.

The Derry Girls star, who was famed for a high-schooler role in her earlier project, realised only during filming that she’d now be debuting into a more “adult” role.

“I realised 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 explained. “[In] the first two [Bridgerton] series, I looked a lot like Spongebob Squarepants, very curly, ginger [hair], yellow dress, sort a of a tent situation going on.”

“But then it was weird having to play the romantic lead and then knowing it was all because—it’s a sexy show,” Coughlan continued. “A lot of sexy things happen in it, and then I realised I was going to have to do the sexy things and I was like, ‘Right.’”

In an earlier interview ahead of the third season’s premiere, the actress got candid about her experience taking the lead “terrifying.”

Coughlan then recalled eventually easing into it and even taking over some creative control when it came to her intimacy scenes.

“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*** you’ to all the conversation surrounding my body. It was amazingly empowering,” she told Stylist in May.

“I felt beautiful in the moment, and I thought: ‘When I’m 80, I want to look back on this and remember how f****** hot I looked!'”

Coughlan added that she felt “great” about the nudity “because not only did I consent to it but I drove it.”