Nicola Coughlan Reveals Family Member Was ‘Mad’ at Her for ‘Bridgerton’ Sex Scenes

Nicola Coughlan’s steamy Bridgerton scenes didn’t have one family member’s seal of approval.

The 37-year-old actress reportedly revealed on the Dec. 13 episode of The Graham Norton Show that her Irish mother wasn’t too happy with her when she saw her “sexy” scenes in the hit Netflix romance series.

“My mother was so mad at me about those scenes — as if they were my fault, so I didn’t go to the screening with her,” she said, per the London Evening Standard.

Coughlan — who rose to fame for playing high school student Clare Devlin in Netflix’s Derry Girls — also shared that she “realized” during filming for Bridgerton‘s latest season that it was the first time she was playing a more mature character.

“I realized I was 35 when I was filming the season, and I’d never played an adult. I was like, ‘How do I do this?’ ” she explained. “[In] the first two [Bridgerton] series, I looked a lot like Spongebob Squarepants, very curly, ginger [hair], yellow dress, sort a of a tent situation going on.”

“But then it was weird having to play the romantic lead and then knowing it was all because — it’s a sexy show,” Coughlan continued.  “A lot of sexy things happen in it, and then I realized I was going to have to do the sexy things and I was like, ‘Right.’ ”

While the actress shared ahead of the premiere of the third season of Bridgerton that it was “terrifying” taking the lead, she eventually eased into it and even took over some creative control when it came to her intimacy scenes.

“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— you’ to all the conversation surrounding my body. It was amazingly empowering,”  she told Stylist in May. “I felt beautiful in the moment, and I thought: ‘When I’m 80, I want to look back on this and remember how f—ing hot I looked!’ ”

Coughlan added that she felt “great” about the nudity “because not only did I consent to it but I drove it.”

She previously told PEOPLE that the “intimacy stuff feels very real” in the new season, saying, “[The characters] get to be intimate together in a very real and beautiful way, and I think that’s what makes it so affecting.” 

“In those intimate moments, they find moments to laugh and you see them figuring it out and doing it together, and I love it,” she added.

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Bridgerton season 3 is streaming now on Netflix.