Florence Pugh recently spoke out about Hollywood and the unrealistic beauty standards it sets.
The 28-year-old actor, who famously portrayed the wife of J. Robert Oppenheimer in Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer," spoke candidly about how young women are treated in the public eye in an interview with The Times.
"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," she told the outlet. "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."
Reflecting on the early stages of her career, Pugh said she felt she was not represented in the industry.
"I remember god-awful headlines about how Keira Knightley isn't thin anymore or watching women getting torn apart despite being talented and beautiful," she told the outlet. "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. I've loved challenging ideas I don't like."
With this in mind, Pugh said she enjoyed challenging how the public expects women to look.
"I wanted to challenge how women were perceived, how we are supposed to look," she said. "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.
"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."
Pugh previously spoke about embracing her body in a 2023 interview with Elle UK.
"I speak the way I do about my body because I'm not trying to hide the cellulite on my thigh or the squidge in between my arm and my boob: I would much rather lay it all out," she said. "I think the scariest thing for me are the instances where people have been upset that I've shown 'too much' of myself."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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