Florence Pugh has spoken out about her experience in Hollywood, describing herself as “too gobby” to be there.
The Oxford-born star looked back on her career to date in a new interview with The Times, and brought up the challenges that women can face in the acting industry.
Pugh, who turns 29 next month, explained: “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. It is really exhausting for a young woman to just be in this industry, and actually other industries. But I’ve always been encouraged to have a voice.”
She said that it’s “always been fashionable” to tell women how to live their lives, or that their decisions are wrong. “It’s about control, isn’t it?” Pugh continued. “It’s still ultimately about suppressing one sex, and we’re dealing with it all the time.”
Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield attend A24’s ‘We Live in Time’ New York Screening at Crosby Street Hotel on September 09, 2024 in New York City. CREDIT: Marleen Moise/Getty Images
The Oppenheimer actor said, too, that she wasn’t prepared to keep quiet, though “most intelligent people would just be quiet and go live their life”.
She described herself as “a bit too gobby and argumentative” and “a bit too yappy” to play by the rules in Hollywood, adding: “I wouldn’t be able to not say how I feel, especially when it’s me being attacked. If people don’t want me to be this way they’re going to be severely disappointed.”
Looking back on when she’d been body-shamed in her career, she said: “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.
“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.”
Yesterday, meanwhile, Pugh and Andrew Garfield spoke to NME about their upcoming rom-com We Live In Time, out on January 1.
In the interview, they discussed the scene in which Garfield’s character Tobias shaves the head of Almut, played by Pugh, and revealed that it was for real, while Garfield also revealed that Pugh fell asleep when filming a scene in bed.
Pugh went on to talk about her career before acting, too. She said: “I worked in my dad’s restaurant. Actually, my first job was… he had sold one of his restaurants and we needed to sell the contents of the restaurant, the furniture. And so I was in charge of selling that.
“I was like, 10 or 11 years old – and lots of grown-up men were there saying things like: ‘All these chairs are actually worth a lot less money than you’re saying they are…’”
The post Florence Pugh says she’s “too gobby” for Hollywood: “It’s still about suppressing one sex” appeared first on NME.
