Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan admits dealing with trolls leaves her 'feeling so negative'

The 34-year-old rose to fame after starring as Clare Devlin in Derry Girls, a Channel 4 sitcom about a group of schoolgirls navigating life in Derry during the Troubles.

The Galway native shot to worldwide stardom when she played socialite Penelope Featherington in Netflix’s hit period drama Bridgerton, which aired on Christmas Day.

However, Nicola has admitted that fame has its downsides and has opened up about negativity and trolls online.

Speaking as a panelist at Advertising Week Europe, she said: “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.”

The Irish actress also spoke about the unexpected success of Bridgerton, which was viewed by more than 80 million households in the first month of its release and has since been renewed for a second, third, and fourth season.

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.”

The second series of the steamy period drama set in London’s Regency era will begin filming over the coming weeks, and Nicola shared that it feels great to be back on set.

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

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