Nicola Coughlan shares work-life balance while filming 'Bridgerton': 'So tired'

Nicola Coughlan claimed that when juggling the production schedules for Bridgerton and 3, she would occasionally cry on the spur of the moment.

Coughlan told AP Entertainment, "I'd film one show during the week, and the other on the weekend." Coughlan plays Maggie in the UK's Channel 4 comedy Big Mood, which debuted in March, and Penelope Bridgerton in the third season of Netflix's Bridgerton, which premieres next month.

“I remember that I was so tired, I would just start crying randomly,” Coughlan said of balancing both projects at once. “And I would I would be saying, ‘There’s nothing actually wrong with me. I am just very tired.’ I had to learn my Big Mood script on the Bridgerton set.”

The Derry Girls actress claimed that the stark differences between the two series made the back-and-forth more challenging. She clarified, "Big Mood has quite naturalistic dialogue."

“Bridgerton is very stylized. We’d film one in West London and one in East London. It was just bonkers. It was bonkers.”

While filming the British series, Coughlan met with Lydia West, her co-star in Big Mood, who was also getting ready for a solo performance.

“I would just look at you, and you were like, the actress I wanted to become,” West told Coughlan. “You can learn your lines in [the makeup] chair.”

Coughlan said the skill was one of necessity. “I had no other time to do it,” she said. “I needed more hours in the day.”

On May 16, the first half of Bridgerton season 3 will be available on Netflix. Coughlan told The Independent earlier this month that she had asked the show to provide her family a different, less nude edit of the next season.

“It’s literally written into my contract,” Coughlan said. “People think I’m like saying it as a joke. I just don’t want to. I grew up Irish Catholic. That’s just not how we vibe.”