- Florence Pugh has said it’s “exhausting” to be a young woman in the acting industry.
- Pugh told The Times of London that female movie stars face being called divas if they don’t follow stereotypes.
- “There are fine lines women have to stay within,” she said.
Florence Pugh has opened up about what it’s like to be a young woman in Hollywood, describing the experience as “exhausting.”
In an interview with The Times of London published on Sunday, the 28-year-old British star reflected on her decadelong career as an actor and issues in the industry.
“There are fine lines women have to stay within, otherwise they are called a diva, demanding, problematic. And I don’t want to fit into stereotypes made by others,” Pugh said. “It is really exhausting for a young woman to just be in this industry, and actually other industries.”
Pugh rose to fame after making her movie debut in “The Falling” in 2014. She followed that up with roles in “Midsommar,” “Black Widow,” “Oppenheimer,” “Dune: Part Two,” and “Little Women” — the latter of which earned her an Oscar nomination.
Pugh told The Times that throughout her career, she had loved challenging ideas she didn’t like, such as how women in the public eye are expected to look.
“I remember watching this industry and feeling that I wasn’t represented. I remember godawful headlines about how Keira Knightley isn’t thin anymore, or watching women getting torn apart despite being talented and beautiful,” she said. “The only thing people want to talk about is some useless crap about how they look. And so I didn’t care to abide by those rules.”
Pugh has frequently spoken out over comments to do with her body or look.
In 2019, the actor called out a publication for “singling out my ‘chunky’ thighs” in a review of one of her movies.
The “We Live in Time” star also told The Telegraph in 2022 that she was told to lose weight and change her “look” when she was cast in a failed television pilot at the start of her career.
Pugh also spoke out over comments she received after wearing a transparent pink gown to a Valentino Haute Couture show in 2022.
In the interview with The Times, Pugh said: “I wanted to challenge how women were perceived, how we are supposed to look.”
“Actually I wasn’t trying to challenge. I just wanted to be there, to make space for a version of a person that isn’t all the things they used to have to be,” Pugh said. “I’m proud I’ve stuck by myself and look the way I look — I’m really interested in people who are still angry with me for not losing more weight, or who just hate my nose ring.”
“I am not going to be able to just change the way that things are — but I can certainly help young women coming into this industry by making conversations happen where they weren’t before,” she added.
The actor recently revealed that she had been previously diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome and endometriosis and that it had prompted her to freeze her eggs.
