Florence Pugh says she was pushed to alter her face for role in sitcom that never got picked up

Florence Pugh has one of the most recognizable faces in Hollywood—her theatrical pout brought vivid character to Midsommar’s Dani and Little Women’s Amy especially. But as a female actor in the spotlight, Pugh has still faced pressure to change her look to fit an inane beauty standard.

In a new interview with The Telegraph, Pugh shares that she had a memorably negative experience early on in her career, working on a pilot for the never-aired Fox series Studio City. After enjoying working with Maisie Williams on the British series The Falling, Pugh said her expectations weren’t even close to being met.

“I’d thought the film business would be like [my experience with] The Falling, but actually, this was what the top of the game looked like, and I felt I’d made a massive mistake,” Pugh shares.

She continues: “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.”

When the pilot for Studio City didn’t get picked up, Pugh returned to her home in London, all but certain her acting career was kaput. But just two weeks later, Pugh was cast as the lead in 2016's Lady Macbeth, a role that would usher in her big break. Pugh says the film “made me fall back in love with cinema, the kind of cinema that was a space where you could be opinionated and loud.”

“I’ve stuck by that,” Pugh continues. “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.”