Florence Pugh’s Bosses Wanted Her to Lose Weight Early In Her Career

Florence Pugh is opening up about her early days as an emerging actress. The Don’t Worry Darling star told The Telegraph over the weekend (October 29) that after landing a television pilot as a pop star on Studio City at age 19, her bosses wanted to make changes to her appearance.

"I felt very lucky and grateful, and couldn't believe that I had got this top-of-the-game job," she told the outlet. But it immediately took a turn when executives started asking her to make changes to her appearance. "All the things that they were trying to change about me – whether it was my weight, my look, the shape of my face, the shape of my eyebrows – that was so not what I wanted to do, or the industry I wanted to work in. I’d thought the film business would be like [my experience of making] The Falling, but actually, this was what the top of the game looked like, and I felt I’d made a massive mistake.”

The pilot was ultimately not picked up and she felt that her career was over but when she returned to England, she landed an audition for Lady Macbeth which made her “fall back in love with cinema.”

“The kind of cinema that was a space where you could be opinionated, and loud, and I’ve stuck by that,” the 26-year-old actress added. “I think it’s far too easy for people in this industry to push you left and right. And I was lucky enough to discover when I was 19 what kind of a performer I wanted to be."

"There's nothing glamorous about it, and I think that's what I love," she confessed in the interview. "When I get to be completely raw, that's when I feel like I can really be watched." The Midsommar actress said she loves doing films that focus on her acting, telling the publication, "When I could be naked at whatever size I was, and bare-faced, and the acting could speak for itself. There's nothing for people to be distracted by: they can't be like, 'Oh, I don't like the make-up.' It was a wonderful reminder: 'Oh, yeah — this is who you are.'"

You can watch Pugh's latest work in the upcoming Netflix period drama/thriller called The Wonder, as an English nurse trying to crack the case of why an 11-year-old girl hasn't eaten in four months. Watch the trailer below:

Don't Worry Darling made its theatrical premiere this Friday (September 23) and has hit $19.2 million in its North American opening weekend. Despite the drama surrounding its cast members and negative reviews, the 1950s-set psychological thriller added another $10.8 million internationally for a global tally of $30 million. Not terrible for a movie that has had a lot of negative press surrounding it.

Wilde has worked to shut down rumors of a feud between Olivia Wilde and Florence Pugh after Pugh was not promoting Don’t Worry Darling on social media. There have also ben rumors of pay disparity among the different cast members. Wilde addressed the latter rumors last month. "There has been a lot out there that I largely don’t pay attention to. But the absurdity of invented clickbait and subsequent reaction regarding a nonexistent pay disparity between our lead and supporting actors really upset me. I’m a woman who has been in this business for over 20 years, and it’s something that I have fought for myself and others, especially being a director. There is absolutely no validity to those claims.”

Additionally, Wilde said to Vanity Fair of Pugh’s silence on promoting the film to her being “one of the most in-demand actresses in the universe. She’s on set on Dune. I gather that some people expect for her to be engaging more on social media. I didn’t hire her to post. I hired her to act. She fulfilled every single expectation I had of her. That’s all that matters to me.”

As far as the alleged Spitgate at the Venice Film Festival where it appeared as though Styles spit on Pine, the cast members have all denied it taking place. Following the premiere, a representative for Pine firmly denied that the incident happened. “This is a ridiculous story — a complete fabrication and the result of an odd online illusion that is clearly deceiving and allows for foolish speculation,” Pine’s rep said in a statement. “Just to be clear, Harry Styles did not spit on Chris Pine. There is nothing but respect between these two men and any suggestion otherwise is a blatant attempt to create drama that simply does not exist.”

Styles also addressed the spit-take during one of his New York City concerts saying to the crowd, “It’s wonderful, wonderful, wonderful to be back in New York. I just popped very quickly to Venice to spit on Chris Pine.” He added while laughing, “But fret not, we’re back.”

Take a look at scenes from Don't Worry Darling below: