Bridgerton’s Simone Ashley has thrown her support behind Nicola Coughlan after she was on the receiving end of some vile trolling.
Coughlan — whose Penelope Featherington is half the central couple of season 3 of Netflix’s Regency-era romance — has received some body-shaming comments when her character’s sex scenes made the air.
“Yeah, the haters are going to hate, and I think we can all relate to that, but I really don’t think that she’s allowing that to bother her,” Ashley said at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival in Monaco earlier this month (via Deadline).
“She has a strong and fruitful career and entire life ahead of her. And I really believe in her, as the world does as well,” Ashley, who plays Kate Sharma on the show, continued.
The Sex Education star continued by calling Coughlan “an inspiration”.
“I think Nicola is just absolutely flying,” Ashley said.
“She is a gorgeous, strong, confident, intelligent woman, seeing her do this press tour and spread so much joy and inspiration to everyone — especially women — all over the world,” she added.
“She’s also a really kind human being, and I think that’s such a universal language that people can relate to.”
During the season 3 press tour, Coughlan made headlines for addressing how it felt filming intimate scenes with her onscreen partner Luke Newton, aka Colin Bridgerton.
After she was called “brave” for the sequences, Coughlan responded with humour and said:” You know, I think 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.
“I am a very proud member of the perfect breasts community, and I hope you enjoy seeing them.”
