Every interview I see or read with Nicola Coughlan, the more I love her and the more I find her incredibly relatable. She was a “late bloomer” as an actress, only finding success in her 30s (with Derry Girls and then Bridgerton). For years, she worked retail and took any job she could get. She knows the value of money and she lived many years without being on anyone’s radar. She also approaches so much of her job as a fan and entertainment-consumer – she wants Bridgerton fans to feel satisfied with the series and she wants to make enjoyable art. Nicola recently chatted with Vanity Fair about Bridgerton and more. Some highlights and SPOILERS if you haven’t seen the first four episodes of Bridgerton Season 3:
She wasn’t a romance-reader before Bridgerton: “I’d never read a romance novel. I was like, ‘Oh, this is really steamy. Like, whoa. I laughed thinking about, Imagine me filming this one day. LOL. Could never be me.”
Now she loves romance: “Realistically, love is the most beautiful thing in the world. I don’t know what it is that it’s seen as something flippant or silly, because it’s not. It’s everything.” Plus, she points out that romance is one of the most-read genres in the world. “The world is a dark and scary place, and I think this show came round and people realized they needed it, but they didn’t know they needed it.”
Nicola has repeatedly revealed that she’s extremely online: “Oh, I outed myself so bad. I started really enjoying TikTok because I wasn’t on my own algorithm. But that has changed because I’ve been doing press for six months. I’m now, like, every second video.”
She wants to know which celebrities watch Bridgerton: “The one thing I want to know is, do we think Beyoncé watches Bridgerton?”
On Lord Debling pursuing Penelope: “It’s so important for her to see herself as desirable. She cannot fathom herself through Debling’s eyes. When he first speaks to her and he’s like, ‘You could make one wither,’ she’s like, Me? This is crazy.”
Penelope’s first kiss with Colin: “This is the most embarrassing thing I could’ve done. I have basically begged this man to kiss me. But she thinks she’s destroyed her life. She sees her future as the spinster. I’m living with my mother who torments me, my sisters who hate me, I’ll never get out of this. What have I got to lose? Nothing. I’ll have that one kiss. It will sustain me forever, and that’s it…. And that’s the moment he finally sees her.”
The impassioned mid-carriage confession from Colin. “It feels crazy, being allowed to talk about it now. But that scene encapsulates everything that’s wonderful about Bridgerton. It’s got the suspense, it’s got the miscommunication, the heartfelt longing for one another, the profession of love, and then it’s got the sexiness. It’s got this brilliant pace.”
Intimate scenes: “We realize later on, she doesn’t know about sex fully, but she’s aware of her body and where she wants him to touch her. It’s lovely because it’s so easy to see virgins on TV portrayed in a way that they’re like terrified and have no agency, but that’s not the case. The consent is managed so beautifully, and that’s down to the writing and the brilliant Lizzy Talbot, the intimacy coordinator, because we want it to seem like it’s not teacher-student anymore. We’re in this together. It’s the first time that they completely see each other and they’re on a level and it’s like, Let’s go.”
Knowing how to handle becoming famous at 31 with Derry Girls: “People say, ‘Was it media training?’ I’m like, No, it was working in retail, where I had to sell face creams and you have to say hi to everyone that came in, giving everyone the freshest version of yourself. I used to get about eight British pounds an hour when I was working.” When you “get this insane job and all of the perks that come with it at a young age, it would seem like that’s normal. And I’m hyperaware that it’s not.” Now 37, Coughlan is glad things unfolded for her in the order they have. “I’m sure if me in my 20s could see me now going, ‘I wouldn’t change a thing,’ I’d be really annoyed, but life experience, yeah, you can’t buy that. You gotta go through it.”
“I’m like, No, it was working in retail, where I had to sell face creams and you have to say hi to everyone that came in, giving everyone the freshest version of yourself.” Like, you can really tell which actors genuinely struggled and worked sh-tty jobs for years before their big break and which actors didn’t. Nicola’s career is wonderful because it feels like she really “deserves” all of the fame, attention and praise coming her way, and even more than that, she actually knows how to handle it and enjoy the ride while still keeping it real. Now I want to know if Beyonce watches Bridgerton too. I bet she does!
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
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- Nicola Coughlan at the 76th EE British Academy Film Awards, Royal Festival Hall, London, UK – 19 Feb 2023,Image: 757418170, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: cpuk / Avalon
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- Nicola Coughlan beim Modeevent Vogue World 2023: London im Theatre Royal Drury Lane. London, 14.09.2023 *** Nicola Coughlan at the Vogue World 2023 London fashion event at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane London, 14 09 2023 Foto:xS.xVasx/xFuturexImagex vogue_world_3977,Image: 805426813, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: imago is entitled to issue a simple usage license at the time of provision. Personality and trademark rights as well as copyright laws regarding art-works shown must be observed. Commercial use at your own risk., Model Release: no, Credit line: IMAGO/Steve Vas / Avalon
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- Nicola Coughlan at the Renegade Nell World Premiere at Everyman Borough Yards in London Bridge, London, United Kingdom on 26 March 2024.,Image: 859801319, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Cat Morley / Avalon
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- NEW YORK, NY- APRIL 5: Nicola Coughlan seen at CBS Mornings on April 05, 2024 in New York City. Copyright: xRWx,Image: 862692021, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: imago is entitled to issue a simple usage license at the time of provision. Personality and trademark rights as well as copyright laws regarding art-works shown must be observed. Commercial use at your own risk., Model Release: no, Credit line: IMAGO/RW / Avalon
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- Cast attend the Milan photocall for Bridgerton season 3 Featuring: Nicola Coughlan Where: Milan, Italy When: 09 May 2024 Credit: Alessandro Bremec/IPA/INSTARimages **UK, USA AND AUSTRALIA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- New York ‘Bridgerton’ Season 3 World Premiere at the Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Centre Featuring: Nicola Coughlan Where: New York, United States When: 13 May 2024 Credit: Roger Wong/INSTARimages
I’m up to episode 5 and I’m loving it so far. My friend tells me she cried while watching episode 7 so now I am really looking forward to the remaining three episodes.
Those face creams are doing right by her because she is absolutely believable playing early 20’s in her late 30’s.
I really enjoy her as an actress. Her timing is perfect and she is so charismatic onscreen.
I was stunned when I found out she’s 37 or 38!
She did a Vogue makeup video. She talked about always using sun cream because of her boss advice and she didn’t go to beach holidays with her friends since she was broke. So, she says that mostly avoiding sun and using sun cream protected her skin.
She’s really cute and a good actress.
I just love love love her – as a person and an actress.
That’s all.
There is definitely something about working in retail that prepares you for so much in life. Once you have dealt with irate customers yelling in your face because of a company return policy, it’s hard for your feathers to be ruffled or to be easily overwhelmed.
Yeah, in an ideal world, everyone would have to work in retail for at least a few months (or even weeks, *anything*), it really does teach you a lot that you can’t learn in many other settings. There should be a year of national service required of all 18-year-olds, and when they’re not in the Peace Corps or whatever, they should be made to work in a customer-facing retail position.
I worked at Macy’s for a while, and JFC, it was *shocking* to see what people would try to pull off. My favorite story is when I was assigned to the register in the accessories department, and one day, a lady came in wanting to return a pair of brown men’s shoes (obviously she thought she’d have better luck with me than in the actual shoe department).
These shoes had clearly been worn daily for years if not decades to the point that the soles were worn through and flapping about, and I honestly don’t even know if a shoe repair shop would have found them worth accepting.
Not only that, they were from like 1982 (not even kidding; there was a faded, old-school yellow price sticker stuck to the bottom of the box that said they’d cost like $8.99). And the kicker is that the price sticker literally said “Woolworths” on it. 😂
She tried to claim the shoes had come from Macy’s VERY recently, that they “hadn’t worn well” so she was disappointed with the quality (lmao), she’d “lost the receipt,” and just randomly thrown them into that box because she’d thrown the original box away. Her whole thing was so ridiculous that it was actually quite comical.
AND she had the audacity to demand a full refund, and said she’d refuse store credit!
(although I don’t even know what that refund amount would have been since Macy’s didn’t sell that brand and never had)
I don’t remember the outcome because I immediately went to fetch a manager to deal with that one— I was relatively new at that point, and wasn’t about to try reasoning with this woman.
Unfortunately, these people get their way a lot of the time even when they’re egregiously in the wrong, because the poor employees just want to get that person to STFU and go away. It was so frustrating to watch that happen and see how smug the customers would be when they got what they wanted, but I totally understood why employees handled it that way— they just wanted that person out of their face.
But getting practice maintaining your composure with people/situations like that really is an important life skill that everyone needs some experience in, imo.
This is just one story and I realize it’s *extremely* tame compared to what some other poor workers deal with, getting screamed at and even assaulted by angry assholes.
Whenever I’m the customer in some sort of “situation,” if I start to get upset, I always make a point of saying to the representative, “I know you don’t make the rules, this isn’t directed at you at all, I’m just frustrated” or something like that, and it goes a long way.
All that’s really required is common freaking decency, but in retail, you learn just how many people are utterly incapable of it. They don’t seem able to consider that the person they’re abusing is an actual human being, just trying to do their job.
(And how many people absolutely *cannot accept* that they are not some sort of “special exception” to every rule or policy a company has.)
Sorry, this comment got way longer than I expected, but I hadn’t thought about that job in a while, and it all just came back, lol. Good times!
I love her so much, she deserves all the accolades she’s getting now. Sidenote: I love her little beehive hairdo, it really suits her!
Her character in derry girls was so relatable, to me at least. I love that friend group, they’re so supportive of each other
I really like her and think she did well, as an individual, in “her” season of Bridgerton. But Season 3 is terrible.
Thank. You.
I’ve been holding my breath waiting for someone else to admit as much lol
Her skin is just gorgeous, like porcelain.