Nicola Coughlans Success: A Lesson for Aspiring Actors

SHE has won plaudits for mastering diverse accents in TV and movie hits such as , and Barbie – but the man who helped her perfect those tones in drama school insists has ‘forged her own success’.

It was announced the Galway actress has marking another major credit on her CV.

Her addition was heralded by streamer Disney+ alongside big names such as David Tennant and Jim Broadbent, while  and Geri Halliwell-Horner are among the new talent previously announced. 

The sixth season of the comedy, co-created by , will be set in the UK for the first time, and will again star Steve Martin alongside and Martin Short.

Coughlan’s former voice tutor from drama school said he is ‘not surprised’ the actress is doing well.

But Alex Taylor of the Royal Conservatoire’s School of Acting, from where Coughlan graduated with a Masters in 2011, admitted: ‘I don’t think we could have predicted she was going to be the force she is now.’

The former head of voice at the school said it ‘doesn’t happen that often’ that a student goes on to achieve their dreams.

Actors including Oscar-winning American Viola Davis – who he worked with at the prestigious Juilliard School in New York and ‘always knew was a force to be reckoned with’ – are a rare exception. But he admits he did not necessarily spot that X-factor in Coughlan, despite her obvious talent.

‘When you work with actors in training, your job is to enable the student to fulfil their potential,’ he told the Irish Mail on Sunday.

‘Nicola was full of potential and lovely to work with. But I think her full potential was realised after the course. She’s blossomed into a fine actress and a beautiful woman.’

Now the director of the course, Mr Taylor remembered Coughlan as ‘a very lovely person’ to work with during her time in Birmingham.

‘She’s got a great sense of humour and she’s very spontaneous and fun. And at the same time, she was serious about what she wanted to do.’

He said some young actors can be ‘difficult’, which he clarifies as ‘a bit diva-like’ or ‘a bit defensive’ about their work.

‘I think that’s one of the most important things – being a likable person, being a friendly person, being an open person, and also being responsive to whoever you’re working with. 

'You can be super talented and not get any opportunities because you’re just difficult in one way or another, or a bit precious or whatever. And Nicola was never like that.’

 Mr Taylor said the 39-year-old actress also ‘knows how to manage a career’, pointing to her ‘very strong social media presence’ – she has 6.3million followers on Instagram alone. 

He recalls the time in 2018 she shot back at a British Theatre Guide reviewer who called her ‘fat’ in a review of one play and ‘overweight’ in the next, without remarking on her performance at all. 

‘She went online and she gave as good as she got,’ Taylor remembered. ‘And from that she got this huge social media following. 

'And that digital presence is actually quite important in the industry now when you’re up for a role. 

'There could be two of you up for the same role, and you could both be equally gifted and talented, and actually the person who has the strongest following on social media will be the person that gets the role.’

Coughlan has said her time in Birmingham ‘set me out on my own in the industry’.

‘A lot of actors you come across, irrespective of their talents, seem to come from a drama school conveyor belt and can be indistinguishable from those who have come before them,’ she said in a 2016 interview.

Praising her peers in the school – including good friend Camilla Whitehill, who has gone on to create the Coughlan-starring Channel 4 comedy Big Mood – she pointed to a ‘world of talent outside of the London bubble’, where ‘people are really starting to pay attention’.

Mr Taylor acknowledged his employer is ‘not a big-name school’ like RADA, where Jessie Buckley trained, or LAMDA, with its five Oscar-winning alumni, or the prestigious Central School of Speech and Drama, all in London.

And he said Birmingham School of Acting, which outperformed both RADA and LAMDA in the Guardian newspaper’s most recent league table and became part of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in 2017, was even ‘lesser known when Nicola was with us’.

He added: ‘I suppose the thing to say about it is that – like many people who are successful – she has forged her own success. She has really done everything she can to establish herself in a very, very successful career.’

The drama tutor of 40 years was ‘absolutely thrilled’ when his former student landed her first major role in Derry Girls and had known comedy ‘was well within her capabilities’.

But he said she has made a ‘bigger mark’ and ‘been more challenged’ on some of the other things she has done since, singling out smash Netflix period drama Bridgerton and her sex scenes in particular.

‘Maybe pointing to that as an acting thing seems a bit shallow, but I actually don’t think that’s an easy thing to do, and I thought she did it beautifully,’ he said.

‘I thought she had such freedom and expressiveness, and you totally believed in the relationship that she was forging with this guy.

‘I think that that will have stood her in very good stead, because obviously lots of people will have seen that and will think this woman’s really an actor.

‘She really is, and I hope she’s going to go from strength to strength.’