EARLIER THIS MONTH, Nicola Coughlan hit back at a theatre critic whose assessment of her work in The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie focused solely on her physical appearance.
The Galway actress, best known for her role as Claire in Derry Girls, understandably took exception to a remark made by Philip Fisher of the British Theatre Guide, who reduced her role as Joyce Emily to little more than an “overweight little girl”.
Nicola took to Twitter to remind Fisher that his job was to critique her performance, not her appearance, and unsurprisingly her retort was met with considerable support, and elicited an apology from the British Theatre Guide.
Hi @BritTheatreGuid, for the second time your reviewer Philip Fisher has come to see a show I’m in, and as part of reviewing the show he has also reviewed my body.
— Nicola Coughlan (@nicolacoughlan) June 14, 2018
How can you continue to support this? pic.twitter.com/Rtd7mVBmSA
In a poignant piece written by the actress for The Guardian today, Nicola elaborated on the incident and the media storm born of it, explaining that the remark ultimately reduced the work put into the creation of the character.
I spent seven weeks creating her world in rehearsals; I researched the Spanish civil war in depth, I spent hours working on my Edinburgh accent, creating her changing physicality from age 11 to 15. By the time we opened the show I was so proud of all the work we’d done and was excited to share it with an audience.
And then Fisher’s review landed…
Everything I’d done to create my character had been reduced to a hurtful word and casual comment on my appearance.
Nicola, whose says the same reviewer also remarked on her appearance last August, goes on to stress that the remark is indicative of a greater problem experienced by women.
I know I’m not alone; women in my industry are put under constant scrutiny for their looks. It affects male actors as well – I had messages from them – but the vast majority of feedback was from women. Something in our society tells us that women’s bodies are fair game for scrutiny in a way that men’s simply are not.
The actress concludes her assessment of the incident and its impact with a nod to the future, saying she stands by her decision to respond to an attitude all too prevalent in her industry.
I’m emboldened and inspired to come out and speak now, thanks to the work of the brilliant women in the Time’s Up movement. I hope in the future that more people will talk about our work, our inspirations, our drive, rather than our looks. A revolution is happening, and I want to play my part in it.
Nicola’s piece has been lauded on Twitter today.
You are a credit to women everywhere thankyou for writing this 💕💛
— Jennifer Barry (@jenniferbarryx) June 29, 2018
You're brilliant and a voice for us all - thank you. You're a force to be reckoned with and we love you.
— Olivia Warren (@OlivesTreehouse) June 29, 2018
Perfect words 🙏🏼 let’s hope some have learnt something now
— Claire Ackling (@Ackerss) June 29, 2018
