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‘Bridgerton’ Actor Nicola Coughlan Had The Perfect Response To Being Called ‘Brave’

This is for every woman who has dealt with backhanded comments about her body.

by Sarah Aswell
Nicola Coughlan attends the Toronto Premiere of Netflix's "Bridgerton" Season 3 Part II at Elgin and...
Robert Okine/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

When will men stop asking dumb questions and expecting serious answers? We may never know, but we do know it’s not today.

Bridgerton's Nicola Coughlan had to deal with an idiotic question this week, but luckily she had the perfect response all teed up and ready to go.

Well known as Penelope Featherington on the hit Netflix series, Coughlan was in Dublin for a Season 3 premiere event when a male journalist told her she was, ‘"very brave for this role,” during a Q&A. It was heavily implied that he was referring to her weight and non-traditional looks while starring in a steamy romance series — not as the villain or the best friend, but as the sexy main love interest.

Coughlan knew just what to say.

"You know, it is hard, because I think women with my body type — women with perfect breasts — we don’t get to see ourselves on screen enough."

And she wasn’t done there.

"I’m very proud as a member of the perfect breasts community," she continued seriously, as the audience laughed. "I hope you enjoy seeing them."

Something tells me that Luke Newton hasn’t been called “brave” for his work on the show.

And this happened despite Bridgerton’s clear mission to break these kinds of stereotypes.

The 37-year-old Galway-bred actress rose to fame after audiences fell in love with her role as Claire on the hit comedy Derry Girls. Over the years, she’s had to face question after question about her size — but not one question about her perfect breasts, at least that I could find.

She told the Irish Times last year, "If you have an opinion about my body please, please don’t share it with me. It’s really hard to take the weight of thousands of opinions on how you look being sent directly to you every day.”

She went on: “People love to undermine women and their hard work. I don’t think anything has improved unfortunately, but the only thing I can try and do is just go out there and do the best I can do with every job I’m given. And to hopefully get as many different roles as I can. All I care about is the work. Bodies change, if I lose weight or gain weight or I do anything it’s no one’s business, all I care about is doing good acting and being judged on that.”

And with that, we will stop talking about her weight. On to the perfect breasts!