From Bridgerton to Big Mood: Nicola Coughlan says actors shouldn't bring vanity to screen
Bridgerton and Derry Girls star Nicola Coughlan loves getting glammed up for a big event, but is adamant about looking "really bad" for her latest TV series.
That's lucky, because for her role as budding playwright Maggie in Channel 4 dark comedy Big Mood, she looks pretty bedraggled in some scenes.
In the show, Maggie is joined at the hip with her best friend, bar owner Eddie, played by It's a Sin star Lydia West.
But their 10-year friendship is sorely tested when Maggie's bipolar disorder makes an unwelcome return, pitching her from manic highs to deep lows.
When she's severely depressed, she's unable to leave the sofa, her flat becomes a tip, and she no longer cares about her appearance. Eddie tries to coax Maggie out of it, but this doesn't really work - it's far more complex.Coughlan, who plays the coiffured Penelope Featherington in Netflix period drama Bridgerton, says it was crucial to look "ugly and messy" to play Maggie properly.
"I really hate vanity on screen," she tells the BBC.
"I always think as actors, we have the privilege of going to red carpet events and dressing up and having glam teams. "I'm like, 'Do that in your own time. Don't bring that to the show'."
Big Mood's writer Camilla Whitehill has been friends with Coughlan since they met at drama school 15 years ago.
"No false eyelashes. And no make-up - don't even think about it," Whitehill laughs, recalling what she wrote in the script notes.
Whitehill wrote the series for Coughlan - they make each laugh a lot, cementing a friendship that is clearly still going strong.
The actress explains why she thinks it's important to be real for the cameras.
"I really feel like audiences are a lot smarter than people give them credit for," she says.
"They can sense authenticity, and I wouldn't be doing Camilla's script justice, or the show as a whole justice, if I came in with a level of vanity to play Maggie."
That made it easier to get ready for work in the morning - because she made zero effort.
"There were moments I looked at myself and thought, 'God, I look really bad'. But I was very comfy."Maggie spends a fair bit of time in pyjama bottoms and slogan T-shirts, and the pair enjoyed choosing which ones she would wear.Although there are a lot of big laughs and deeply cringeworthy moments in the series, it's also got a serious side. We see the huge impact bipolar disorder has not only on Maggie, but those around her.
Bipolar disorder is a mental health condition that the NHS website says affects your moods, which can swing from one extreme to another. It used to be known as manic depression, and symptoms include episodes of:
Depression - feeling very low and lethargic
Mania - feeling very high and overactive.Coughlan spoke in 2019 about her own mental health issues, telling Glamour magazine about a period of depression when she "couldn't get out of bed".
She was able to get through this period with "strong support" from her family and friends, and said at the time: "We need to stop the stigma."Working on Big Mood was new territory, though.
"When we were reading the scripts, I was like, depression - it's really sad. But it's something most people can relate to. It's awful, but that's just the way the world is. "But the manic episodes are something I didn't really understand, and then imagining how it must feel for her to go from the highest of the high to the lowest of the low, how difficult that must be."
Coughlan stresses Big Mood is about Maggie's journey, rather than just about her illness.
"She's just a funny woman who happens to have bipolar disorder, so it was more important to me to make her fully feel real.
"It's quite uncomfortable because anti-psychotic medication is a lot less palatable for people to talk about. But I think Camilla's done a brilliant job."Whitehill says: "It's great the conversation around it has started, but I can't stand the term 'mental health'.
"You don't talk about cancer, saying 'physical health'. It would be makes no sense.
"Aside from that, it's great we've encouraged conversation around things like depression or anxiety. But there are other mental illnesses and their symptoms can be not as palatabl
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