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Florence Pugh reflects on why being a woman in the industry is “exhausting”.
During the interview with The Times published on Sunday, We live in time star spoke candidly about how women are treated in Hollywood and why she always vowed to go against the norm.
“I’m not mean — I hope people think I’m kind. But there are fine lines that women have to stay within, otherwise they are called divas, demanding, troublesome,” Pugh said. “And I don’t want to fit into the stereotypes created by others. It’s really exhausting for a young woman just to be in this industry, and in fact in other industries as well. But I was always encouraged to have a voice.”
Having been in the industry for 10 years, Pugh recalled seeing headlines early on about Keira Knightley and how women were easily mocked for their looks.
She explained: “Look, not everyone has legs that last for days. I remember looking at this industry and feeling like I wasn’t represented. I remember the horrible headlines about Keira Knightley not being skinny anymore, or seeing women getting ripped despite being talented and beautiful. The only thing people want to talk about is some useless crap about how they look. And so I didn’t care to follow those rules. I loved challenging ideas that I didn’t like.”
In her career so far, Pugh said she aimed to “challenge the way women were perceived” and how they “should look” by calling out why every judgment is wrong.
“I wasn’t actually trying to challenge. I just wanted to be there, to make space for a version of a person who is not all that she once had to be,” she said.
Whether she’s cutting her hair or wearing a see-through dress on the red carpet, Pugh said she was “proud” to stay true to herself despite any criticism or clichéd beauty standards.
“I’m proud of myself and of looking the way I do — I’m really interested in people who are still mad at me for not losing weight yet or who just hate my nose ring. I won’t just be able to change the way things are — but I can certainly help young women coming into this industry by enabling conversations where they haven’t been before,” she said.
Pugh has been honest before about being proud of herself and her body. During the interview with Elle UK last year, the actress explained: “I talk the way I talk about my body because I’m not trying to hide the cellulite on my thigh or the thorn between my arm and breast: I’d rather put it all on display. I think the scariest cases for me are when people were upset that I showed ‘too much’ of myself.”
During the event, Pugh wore a transparent Valentino dress resulting in online criticism. Of the look, Pugh said: “When it all went down with the Valentino pink dress a year ago, my nipples were showing through a piece of fabric, and it really upset people. People fear freedom; the fact that I am comfortable and happy.”
Pugh recently starred in the We live in time alongside Andrew Garfield. The actress is slated to star next Lightning bolts and was announced to be joining a seven-episode limited series based on John Steinbeck’s 1952 novel. East of Eden for Netflix.
