Florence Pugh is speaking candidly about things she’s had to go through in her career, particularly regarding her appearance.
The 27-year-old Oppenheimer star opened up as part of TIME’s 2023 list of Next Generation Leaders. The feature highlights 10 trendsetters and trailblazers guiding the way to a brighter future.
The actress shared during the conversation that she’s received some harsh comments about how she looked physically — and was even asked to change how she looked.
It was recalled in the feature that after her film debut in The Falling back in 2014, she got a pilot for a show that never went forward. This was a blessing as producers actually were asking her to change her body. Florence refused to do so and made the decision to not return to Hollywood until she had a better grasp on what it is she wanted to represent.
She then landed a breakout role in the British period drama lady Macbeth playing the titular character, and afterwards was drawn back to Hollywood once more to star in Fighting With My Family.
Florence said:
“The person I came back to was a female wrestler with muscles and big thighs who made her own name as a champion.
I quite liked that because the last time I’d been there I was told I needed to lose weight – it was just so not the person I wanted to be.”
She also spoke about portraying strong-willed women who rally against society’s expectations:
“Even if they’re not defined on the page, I always find some way to make them quite confrontational… I never see the bad in them – even when they have killed children and burned boyfriends.
I’ve always understood them as people that needed to do what they had to do to survive.”
