Florence Pugh recalls early project when Hollywood bosses tried to change ‘my weight’ and ‘my look’

‘Don’t Worry Darling’ star admitted she felt ‘like I’d made a massive mistake’ after the experience

Florence Pugh has said she “felt like I’d made a massive mistake” moving to Hollywood during the early years of her career.

In a new interview, Pugh opened up about how studio bosses wanted to change her appearance after she landed the lead role as a pop star in a television pilot when she was 19.

Speaking to The Telegraph, the 26-year-old actor said: “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 Don’t Worry Darling star added.

The show, titled Studio City, wasn’t picked up and Pugh moved back to England, she told the publication.

Shortly after, Pugh landed an audition for Lady Macbeth which “made me 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,” she continued, adding, “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.”

Earlier this week, Pugh announced she plans to release a solo music album, adding she would have “put money” on being a singer-songwriter before “being an actor”.

The British actor will next be seen in Oscar-winner Sebastian Lelio’s The Wonder, adapted from Emma Donoghue’s novel of the same name.

It will be released in the UK on 4 November.