'Bridgerton' Casting Director Says She Gets Sent Tons of "Unsolicited" Audition Tapes: "Not Nude Pictures, But Not Far Off"

Yeesh.

nicola coughlan as penelope featherington and luke newton as colin bridgerton, standing apart from the crowd at an outdoor event, in 'bridgerton' season 3
(Image credit: Netflix)

Bridgerton casting director Kelly Valentine Hendry could do without some of the audition tapes she's constantly receiving.

Speaking on the latest episode of the Should I Delete That? podcast, Hendry revealed that "90 percent" of her inbox is saturated with emails from fans wanting to be on the show, and sending her decidedly X-rated content.

"It’s every day… I get the most unbelievable videos, unsolicited," Hendry explained to hosts Alex Light and Em Clarkson (as transcribed by The Hollywood Reporter).

"It’s sex basically. It’s not actual sex but it’s quite punchy, the stuff that comes through to me. It’s not nude pictures, but not far off. It’s a bit sad, really."

The reason this is such a phenomenon for Hendry is that, obviously, Bridgerton is quite a raunchy show—with fairly explicit sex scenes and nudity being shown on screen pretty regularly.

On that note, the casting director also addressed how much discourse there has been around Nicola Coughlan's sex scenes in season 3, because of her body type differing from the norm of what we typically see on TV.

"People saw her and felt represented, because she's not super thin," Hendry said on the podcast. She later added, "If we can get to a place where it's not discussed, that would be amazing, wouldn't it?"

Coughlan herself has addressed her decision to film nude scenes for the series.

"We had a lot of control and we chose how naked we were," she told theSkimm in May. "People said, you know, she did it to show the body shamers. But I didn't. I did it completely selfishly. I did it because I wanted to do it, and there's something incredibly empowering in that."

Then finally, she grew tired of the discourse and said during a live Q&A, "It is hard, because women with my body type—women with perfect breasts—we don't get to see ourselves on screen enough and I'm very proud as a member of the perfect breast community." LOL, mic drop.

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Iris Goldsztajn
Morning Editor

Iris Goldsztajn is a London-based journalist, editor and author. She is the morning editor at Marie Claire, and her work has appeared in the likes of British Vogue, InStyle, Cosmopolitan, Refinery29 and SELF. Iris writes about everything from celebrity news and relationship advice to the pitfalls of diet culture and the joys of exercise. She has many opinions on Harry Styles, and can typically be found eating her body weight in cheap chocolate.