Nicola Coughlan always gets the last laugh.
The Irish actress, 37, revealed that she insisted on shooting nude scenes for “Bridgerton” Season 3 in response to online body shaming comments.
“I specifically asked for certain lines and moments to be included,” Coughlan told Stylist magazine in an interview published Tuesday. “There’s one scene where I’m very naked on camera, and that was my idea, my choice.”
She continued: “It just felt like the biggest ‘f–k you’ to all the conversation surrounding my body; it was amazingly empowering.”
“I felt beautiful in the moment,” Coughlan added, “and I thought: ‘When I’m 80, I want to look back on this and remember how f—ing hot I looked!’”
Coughlan is the leading lady in the new season of “Bridgerton” that debuted on Netflix Thursday. It’s based on the fourth entry in author Julia Quinn’s book series.
The Netflix star confirmed she collaborated with intimacy coordinator Lizzy Talbot to shoot her sex scenes with Season 3’s leading man Luke Newton, who plays Colin Bridgerton.
“You go, ‘Ok, what do I want to show? What don’t I want to show? What’s scripted, and what do I want to add?’” she recalled of her approach to filming Season 3.
Coughlan previously went after body shamers in a now-deleted Instagram post in 2022, where she revealed she receives hurtful messages about her body daily.
“If you have an opinion about my body please, please don’t share it with me,” she told fans, alongside a selfie.
“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,” Coughlan added.
“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.”
Audiences will see Coughlan’s steamy scenes when they watch “Bridgerton” Season 3 — except for her family. She revealed last month that Netflix gave her parents an edited PG version of the show.
“It’s literally written into my contract,” Coughlan said in an interview on SiriusXM Hits 1. “People think I’m like saying it as a joke. I just don’t want to. I grew up Irish Catholic. That’s just not how we vibe.”
Part 1 of “Bridgerton” Season 3 is now streaming on Netflix. Part 2 will be released June 13.
