Nicola Coughlan is asking that people refrain from commenting on her body.
The actress, who plays Penelope Featherington on "Bridgerton," made the request in an Instagram post that featured a mirror selfie.
"Hello! So just a thing — if you have an opinion about my body please, please don't share it with me," Coughlan began.
"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," she continued. "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."
This is not the first time Coughlan has spoken out about her weight. In March 2021 the actress, who shot to fame as a star in the series "Derry Girls," posted a Twitter thread that included a link to a 2018 piece she wrote for The Guardian, titled "Critics, judge me for my work in Derry Girls and on the stage, not on my body."
"Also can we please stop asking women about their weight in interviews, especially when it completely irrelevant?" she asked.
"I’m seeing a lot of interviews from 10 years ago where people go 'Oh weren't the questions so inappropriate!' Unfortunately it’s still happening. Every time I’m asked about my body in an interview it makes me deeply uncomfortable, and so sad I'm not just allowed to just talk about the job I do that I so love."
Coughlan explained that it was "so reductive" that women who are making "great strides for diversity in the arts" are asked such questions that "just pull us backwards."
"Also, and I mean this in the nicest way possible, I'm not a body positivity activist, I'm an actor I would lose or gain weight if an important role requirement," Coughlan added. "My body is the tool I use to tell stories, not what I define myself by."
Concluding her Twitter thread, the star pleaded with the media to stop bringing up the topic of weight.
"It would really love to never be asked about it in an interview again, also I have so many other things I love to talk about, I'm Irish so I can talk till the cows come home."
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