The actress recently starred as an expert chef and pregnant mother in We Live in Time
Following the release of A24’s We Live in Time, Florence Pugh opened up about how it’s “exhausting” as a woman in Hollywood in an interview with The Sunday Times, particularly the binary expectations to which women are subjected.
“There are fine lines women have to stay within, otherwise they are called a diva, demanding, problematic,” Pugh said in the interview published on Sunday. “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.”
The 28-year-old actress reflected on the online criticism she’s received online, from one critic referring to Pugh’s “chunky thighs” in the 2019 film Fighting With My Family and online trolls commenting on a sheer dress she wore in 2022, where she was later told to “grow up” in a social media post.
“Look, not everybody has legs that go on for days,” Pugh said. “I remember watching this industry and feeling that I wasn’t represented. I remember godawful headlines about how Keira Knightley isn’t thin any more, or watching women getting torn apart despite being talented and beautiful.”
Recent headlines revealed how Hollywood and press outlets publicly shamed the teenage Knightley after starring in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. The 28-year-old Pugh also starred in film projects as a teenager, and in the last decade her credits include Lady Macbeth, Midsommar, Little Women, Black Widow, Oppenheimer, and Dune: Part Two. Pugh most recently starred in We Live in Time, as Almut, a pregnant chef who faces a life-threatening illness, opposite Andrew Garfield’s Tobias.
“The only thing people want to talk about is some useless crap about how they look,” Pugh said of her recent role. “And so I didn’t care to abide by those rules. I’ve loved challenging ideas I don’t like.”
