-You know our next guest
from her work in "Barbie" and the sitcom "Derry Girls." She stars in "Bridgerton,"
which premieres the first half of its highly anticipated third
season on Netflix May 16th, with the second half
arriving on June 13th. Let's take a look. -Gentlemen. I believe you know
Ms. Featherington. -H-How delightful
to see you all. Such s-splendid weather
we are having. ♪♪ -Ms. Featherington,
you seem...discomposed. -No. Uh -- [ Stammers ] I'm quite well, my lord.
[ Giggles ] [ Clears throat ] [ Exhales sharply ] -Please welcome to the show
Nicola Coughlan, everybody! [ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪ ♪♪ Hey, Nicola!
-Hi! -They're very excited
you're here. They're very excited
you're here. [ Cheers and applause ]
Yep. They are. -Hello!
-Now, I -- -I'm not Beyoncé! Calm down! -Too much!
-No. In their defense, I told them you were Beyoncé,
so that's on me. -I'm so sorry. Yeah.
-I do want to get
to "Bridgerton," but I also want to
get to the fact that you -- I thought -- I knew -- I had
heard you were an "SNL" fan. I'm like,
"Oh, that would be so cool. You get to come to 30 Rock.
You know, I'll show you 8H." You've been there.
and you actually did the tour. -Oh, I paid to come here. -Okay.
-Um, yes. I was very excited,
and I loved it, and I paid, and it was when "Derry Girls"
had just come out, and I was like,
"No one will know." It was like five days
it had come out, so I was like,
"No one knows who I am." You get to the end of --
Great tour, by the way. You get to the end of it,
and they're like, "You can make
your own chat show." Everyone was really shy,
so I was like, "I'm gonna take
a stab in the dark and think, like, none of these
people are going to know me." So I was like --
They were pretty shy. "I'll do it. It's fine." So I got up, I was like,
"Hey, welcome to "Late Night with
Nicola Coughlan"!
Da-da-da-da-da. And my friends were like,
"You're an idiot." And then at the end,
someone came up. They were like, "Loved you
on 'Derry Girls,' by the way." I was like... [ Laughter ] Ooh.
It's very embarrassing. Very embarrassing.
-You were -- You went recently.
You saw my old -- -Kristen Wiig.
-I mean, she must be -- I'm gonna guess
she's one of your heroes. -Uh, funniest person alive,
aside from you, as well. -Oh, no, no. No.
Including. Including. -Altogether.
-Yeah, yeah. She's the best. -I met her once.
I panicked so hard that I invited her
to move into my house. -Oh, no.
-She said, "Yeah..." I'm still waiting. Yeah.
[ Laughter ] -So you met someone
you really admired, and the best
you could come up with was, "Will you move in with me?" -"Do you want to
live in my house?" I didn't even have a house then.
I was living in a small flat. -Oh, man.
-Yes. -She's smart.
She probably googled to find out
if you have a house. -Yeah.
It was not worth it for her. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-So "Bridgerton" was a show that you guys made,
came out -- [ Cheers and applause ] -Oh, my God. Yeah. -Came out during the pandemic, so that must have been
a case of you had no idea how your life
would change in public. -I was -- It was
during COVID, obviously. I was living at home
with my mum. Shout-out, Beatrice.
And she -- [ Cheers and applause ]
Yeah. She'll love that. Yeah, and there were like --
82 million people watched. I was like, "That sounds
amazing. I'm locked in my house. I have no frame of reference." And then when I left my house
eventually, I was like, "Oh, people know
who I am now a lot. Oh, that's different." Yeah. -And it does seem like, um, both a very fervent
but also a very kind fan base. Is that --
-They're very kind. -That's wonderful.
-It's just they love love and dancing and romance and...
[ Cheers and applause ] Yeah! They're lovely.
Yeah. They're lovely. -Well, there's a lot of
your love for them to love this season.
-Very much so. -Yeah, and let me just say, from
the clip, excellent fan work. -Oh, thank you very much. -Excellent work with the fan.
-Yeah. -You know your way around a fan. -It was wild because
I am incredible at flirting, so to play someone
that was battered, it was a real stretch for me. [ Laughter ]
No, I'm -- -You could see you were
tamping down your natural... -I was like, "No."
Yeah. My natural rizz. I was like,
"Let's get that out of the way." No. Yeah. No.
I'm pretty terrible. Yeah. -Uh, the costumes. Beautiful.
-Beautiful. -Deeply uncomfortable? -Oh, absolutely.
Yes, yes, yes. And there's a wig
that goes along with that. -Yeah.
-And, um -- Yeah. So I'm corseted
and I have things and... -Right.
-You know... -Here's a photo.
Here you are corseted in Uggs. -This is what happens
underneath. So I'm, like, uncomfortable
uncomfortable, uncomfortable, comfy girl. Nice time. Fun. Yeah. -And, now, this is taken
the day you died? -Yes! Alright. I have been brought back
to Earth, which is why I'm here
to talk about my business... -Explain what exactly
is happening here. -What is happening here is I went to visit
my friends in LA. It was Oscars weekend.
2020. February 2020. Oh, what different times
they were. Um, and my friend
Jonathan van Ness, who is on "Queer Eye,"
was hosting the Elton John Oscar party,
and he was like, "Come along." And I was like -- You know,
like, bring your little
cousin to the event. I was like, "I can't believe
I'm here! This is so cool." And then they were like, "But
you have to be back on set." And I was like,
"I will be fine on set. I will not be sleepy at all." And that's when
I got back to set. So...yeah. -It was revealed --
in the season-one finale, so I think it's safe that I'm
not ruining anything -- that you were Lady Whistledown. Was this something
you knew going into it when you were cast?
-Yes. I found out
in a super-professional way. I found out
on a Reddit fan forum. -Okay.
[ Laughter ] Because I googled it.
-Googled it. -I googled it.
And then I arrived day one. I was like, "This is amazing. Am I her? Like, is that me?
Do I get to...?" And they were like,
"Yeah, it's you." And then I proceeded
to tell everyone, so it was a surprise
for nobody on the cast because I wouldn't
stop talking about it. -So it turns out. you were
terribly cast as someone who was good
at keeping a secret. -Absolutely rubbish. Yeah.
But also I'm like -- Like, technically,
I job-share with Julie Andrews. -Oh. You do job-share!
-Right? If someone doesn't know
who I am, I'm like, "Me and Julie,
we split the work." You know, it works for us.
It works for us. Yeah. -Is it true that people
are disappointed when they realize
you are not British? -Oh, absolutely. Yes.
-Yeah. -Yes, but they should be more
excited because I'm Irish. -Yeah!
[ Cheers and applause ] I mean, I almost feel
like that's someone who's never met an Irish person. -Exactly. I'm like... -At what age did you learn to have a British accent
for professional work? -For professional work.
I was about 14. I used to do a lot
of voiceovers. There was a tiny frog
or a little princess. I was like,
"I will do that voice." -Yeah.
-Yeah. -And were you really good
at frogs and princesses? -Very -- Especially --
A frog/princess crossover? Are you kidding me?
-Yeah. You couldn't do better. -There was no one else
in the west of Ireland that could do that
better than me, yeah, yeah. -Was it --
It is such a joyful show. I just want to quickly say
about "Derry Girls." -Yes!
-Was that just -- [ Cheers and applause ]
-Aw. Thank you. -Um, even though obviously
you thrive in any accent, it must have just been
so fun to do a show that was so Irish
and so beloved by everyone. -The accent is so much harder
than the British one. -Yeah.
-Because I say -- The word G-I-R-L.
I say "girl." They say "gaeerl." Which is like -- There's so many
more vowels in that than exists. Like, it's so difficult
and, like -- Yeah, they say things like,
you know... "Ate-our pawhr shawr,"
and things like that. That's "eight-hour
power shower." Sorry. I just realized I said sounds
that maybe didn't -- Yeah. -One more juggernaut.
You were lucky enough -- And we were lucky enough
to see you in "Barbie." -Yes.
-That must have been such a cool experience, as well.
[ Cheers and applause ] -It was crazy. It was crazy. I mean, I auditioned for it, and they were like,
"Greta Gerwig likes your tape." And I just fell on the ground and lie on the ground
for a long time. And then they were like,
"You're filming 'Bridgerton,' so you can't be in it." I was like,
"Please a little bit." And they were like,
"It won't work." I was like,
"A small, tiny, little part." So I e-mailed Greta and I was
like, "I will clean the floors, I will make the tea,
but I would love to be there." So they let me, like, pop in. But the day I went to set
was the day Ryan Gosling had no top on. It was very overwhelming.
-Yeah. -That is hard,
and people don't give me enough sympathy for
how hard that was to deal with. Imagine the first time
you met him, you're like, "Why's there no tops? No top."
Yeah, it's a lot. -I thought that was
in your rider. You're like, "I'll do it,
but when I get there, Gosling better have
his top off." -I know. I was like --
I was like, "Not again, Ryan!
For God's sakes! Cover it up!" -What a joy to have you here.
-Aw. This is so nice. -What a joy
to meet you in person. Congratulations on everything.
-Thank you. [ Cheers and applause ]
-Nicola Coughlan, everybody. The first part of the
third season of "Bridgerton" begins streaming on Netflix
May 16th. We'll be right back
with more "Late Night."
