Seven years ago, Nicola Coughlan was sitting behind an optician’s desk in Ireland, waiting for her big break. Now the actor is rewriting the rules for success as she steps into the lead role in Bridgerton’s buzzy new season
Each year, during the crisp British summer, Kensington Palace opens its immaculate grounds to a well-heeled cohort of London’s elite. It is here, among the pruned blooms and gentle soundtrack of a string quartet, that Nicola Coughlan finds herself on the brink of her own fraudulent discovery.
Having duped the palace’s esteemed guests with her portrayal of a society debutante in Netflix’s period-drama Bridgerton, the Irish actor has yet again pulled off the part of an inconspicuous socialite.
“Bridgerton often makes people think I’m fancy. In reality, I’m just a girl from a village in the west of Ireland. I’m not really fancy at all,” the 37-year-old actor confesses to marie claire from her London hotel. It’s the start of the Easter long weekend and the actor is enjoying some downtime before commencing Bridgerton’s mammoth global press tour. “There’s something funny about your name being mentioned amongst famous people. For me, that’s the name that was read out at my primary school roll call. It sounds off to your ear.”
While Coughlan’s upbringing in the small harbour city of Galway might be a far-cry from the elite echelon she now navigates both
