Nicola Coughlan takes on the lead role in season three of Bridgerton

The Irish actress was made for the role of Penelope Featherington and is bound to blow fans away with her moving performance in season three.

The wallflower finally gets her time to shine and we cannot wait for people to finally see what a talent Nicola Coughlan is.

There has been a lot of talk surrounding the star's appearance with many celebrating the fact that we finally have a mid-sized woman playing the lead.

It's an important step for the body-positive movement, but Coughlan said being naked on screen has been incredibly empowering for her.

She told Stylist, "There’s one scene where I’m very naked on camera, and that was my idea, my choice.

"It just felt like the biggest ‘f-ck you’ to all the conversation surrounding my body; it was amazingly empowering.

The Derry Girls star continued, "I specifically asked for certain lines and moments to be included. I felt beautiful in the moment, and I thought: ‘When I’m 80, I want to look back on this and remember how f-cking hot I looked!’"

The actress said her co-star and dear friend Luke Newton was a major comfort to her during the sex scenes.

She told Radio Times: "Luke and I had a real hand in what we did and how it came across. We had agency and we could let it flow.

"Thankfully, we had that physical comfort with one another – so it ended up being a really beautiful thing," she said.

Knowing Nicola felt empowered during such vulnerable scenes is so important.

The new season of Bridgerton is on Netflix now.

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