Nicola Coughlan admits it can be ‘really hard’ dealing with negativity online

Nicola Coughlan has admitted it can be “really hard” dealing with negativity online.

The Galway native rose to fame following her portrayal of Clare Devlin in the sitcom Derry Girls, which follows the lives of a group of friends who attend an all-girls school in Derry during the Troubles in the 90s.

The Irish actress became a household name across the globe in December, after playing Penelope Featherington in Netflix’s hit period drama Bridgerton.

Opening up about dealing with online trolls, the 34-year-old told Advertising Week Europe: “It can be really hard, because I enjoy interacting with people and I feel so grateful to the people who watch the things that I do and I want to say thank you so much.”

“But you can often leave, Twitter especially, feeling so negative.”

“But Pinterest, I don’t use it publicly… I never leave it feeling awful,” she added.

Speaking about Bridgerton’s success, Nicola said: “The show came out on Christmas Day, the biggest day of the year anyway, and I just got convinced nobody’s going to watch this.”

“It’s now just become so huge. Even when I’m not looking for it on the internet it seems to be everywhere, it’s a wild experience.”

“The weird thing when you’re making a show you have such little a concept of what the reception is going to be or even what you’re making.”

“You walk into these ballrooms and everyone looks phenomenal but you don’t know what the music is or the shots look like, how your character is coming across.”

When asked did she feel like she missed out on the hype because of lockdown, Nicola replied: “Yes and no, because I sort of experienced that with Derry Girls.”

“It blew up in its own way and a microcosm in Ireland and then Bridgerton happened and 82m people watched that globally. So partially I was quite glad I was back in Ireland with my mum when it came out, because those numbers!”

“The only sense I really had of it was through the internet, a very strange thing trying to compute how many people that it…”

“The one time I really wished this was happening in person was we were nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Ensemble,” she admitted.

“And there was a moment when it was like ‘we’d all be in LA together and going to awards is so fun because you meet the people from the things you love!’ But maybe it’s been a good thing we’ve eased into it.”

Speaking about the upcoming series of Bridgerton, which is set to start filming the second season in the coming weeks, the star revealed she currently being fitted for 3 new wigs ahead of filming.

“I’m really excited to be back, that’s my happy place being back on set and working.”

“And then Derry Girls will be after that and I’ll sleep sometime in December!”

While season one of Bridgerton focused on The Duke of Hasting’ss romance with Daphne Bridgerton, played by Phoebe Dynevor, season two will center around a new love story.

The show will see Anthony Bridgerton, played by Jonathan Bailey, strike up a romance with new character Kate Sharma, played by Simone Ashley.

Four new actors have joined the cast ahead of the upcoming season, including Charithra Chandran, Shelley Conn, Calam Lynch and Rupert Young.