Nicola Coughlan Requested Nude 'Bridgerton' Scene to Hit Back at Body Shaming

The 37-year-old, who plays Penelope Featherton in the Netflix series, revealed in an interview with Stylist that she wanted to be nude for a love scene in the new episodes.

"I specifically asked for certain lines and moments to be included," she explained. "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--k you' to all the conversation surrounding my body; it was amazingly empowering," she said, before adding how she felt in the moment.

"I felt beautiful in the moment, and I thought: 'When I'm 80, I want to look back on this and remember how f--king hot I looked!'" she added.

Coughlan's confidence took some time to get to set, however, with the actress explaining that when when she initially tried on the strapless thong in preparation for the scene, she had some doubts.

"I went to the bathroom and looked in the full-length mirror," she recalled in an interview with The Los Angeles Times. "I was like, 'Absolutely not.' I hid it down the bottom of the laundry basket. I was like, ‘How am I going to do this?'"

However, it didn't take long for her to revel in the freedom of being nude, adding, "By the end of the day, we were both lying under a blanket, not clothed, just chillin.' We were like, 'This is why nudists do it.'"

In an interesting juxtaposition, her costar Luke Newton -- who plays love interest Colin Bridgerton -- revealed to PEOPLE there were some mental gymnastics to baring all on set.

"I think there's always been that underlying sort of question mark with these two characters," he explained of Colin and Penelope's friends-to-lovers relationship. "And people have obviously wanted them to get to the point that we're getting to now, so I guess it was always in the back of our minds."

"You kind of play that in previous seasons and in previous scenes, but you can't really prepare for stripping down naked in front of your friends," he added.

The first part of Bridgerton Season 3 is streaming on Netflix now; Part 2 drops June 13.