Nicola Coughlan has responded to a Twitter user who referred to her as the ‘fat girl from Bridgerton’ while critiquing her styling at the Golden Globes.
On Sunday evening, Coughlan – who has won universal praise and acclaim for her role as Penelope Featherington in the Netflix hit – joined the legions of actors who attended the 78th annual Globes virtually from home and dressed in their best to mark the occasion.
Coughlan looked incredible in a canary-yellow tulle gown by London-based designer Molly Goddard. The Derry Girls star paired the look with a short black cardigan by Ply Knits and De Beers jewellery and completed her ensemble with a bold beauty choice of pink-hued eyeshadow and lime green hair clips.
The actor’s awards outfit was largely celebrated online – as have most of her style choices of late – however, one criticism in particular caught the eye of the actor, leading her to respond directly on Twitter.
Amanda Richards, host of the podcast Big Calf Podcast, tweeted on Monday: ‘The fat girl from Bridgerton is wearing a black cardigan at the Golden Globes, bc no matter how hot and stylish you are, if you’re a fat girl there will always be a black cardigan you think about wearing, then decide against, but ultimately wear bc you feel like you have to. [sic]’
Coughlan replied to the tweet, informing Richards of the thought that went into the styling decision and also criticised the podcaster for not using her name, writing: ‘I thought the cardigan looked ace, Molly Goddard used them on her runway with the dresses that’s where the idea came from, also I have a name. [sic]’
Also, and I mean this in the nicest way ah possible, I’m not a body positivity activist, I’m an actor I would lose or gain weight if an important role requirement.
My body is the tool I use to tell stories, not what I define myself by.— Nicola Coughlan (@nicolacoughlan) March 1, 2021
Coughlan’s initial tweet has so far been ‘liked’ more than 2,000 times and has provoked a discussion about the exchange online.
Richards, who says she has been trolled with abuse since sharing her tweet, says she refers to herself as fat and that it is not an ‘insult’ or ‘mean’.
Richards, whose podcast description is ‘a podcast about being the fat kid’ responded to Coughlan writing, ‘fair enough’. She also agreed with another user on the social media platform that she should have used Coughlan’s name when making her observation and she acknowledged that she ‘projected my own feelings about the requisite fat girl cover up cardigan onto that look’.
This was something noted by British comedian and Shrill actor Lolly Adefope who accused the podcaster of making an assumption about Coughlans’ relationship with her body while also ignoring the fact that, unfortunately, the word ‘fat’ is ‘not used neutrally by everyone’.
Body positivity campaigner and designer GabiFresh also tweeted Richards to say that while she was a big fan of Richards, they felt that the original message was ‘rude and full of projection’ and that there is ‘constructive feedback’ to be found within the responses, to which Richards said she ‘totally agreed’ and has acknowledged.
