Florence Pugh Admits Online Criticism About Her Weight Has Been 'Really Painful' to See: 'It Never Feels Good'

Florence Pugh has grown a thick skin throughout her years in the spotlight — but mean comments still hurt her.

"It’s so hard. [The internet’s] a very mean place," the actress, 28, explained in a recent interview. "It’s really painful to read people being nasty about my confidence or nasty about my weight. It never feels good."

Part of the issue with people talking about Pugh's looks has been that she doesn't want to appear the way the public wants her to. "The one thing I always wanted to achieve was to never sell someone else, something that isn’t the real me," the Midsommar alum noted.

"I don’t think it’s confidence in hoping people like me,” Pugh added. “I think it’s just, like, I don’t want to be anyone else. I’m not a model. It’s portraying a completely different version of myself that I don’t necessarily believe in."

Before getting in front of the camera for photoshoots or on the red carpet, the blonde beauty has worked on pumping herself up to prevent the mean comments from getting to her. "You have to believe that you deserve to be in those pages being beautiful. But now, I know what I want to show, [and] I know who I want to show. I know who I want to be and I know what I look like. There's no insecurities about what I am anymore," she said.

Pugh has been candid about the facade Hollywood actors can put on when they are just like the rest of us. "There’s no pretending with me. When I put on makeup and step in a wonderful dress, I give credit to the people that made me look like that, and I also want my fans to know that a) I don’t look like that all the time and b) I also have stress acne, and I also have hairy eyebrows and I also have greasy hair," the A-lister admitted in a 2023 interview.

As Morning Honey previously reported, Pugh has also been open about times when her assurance in herself has rubbed people the wrong way, especially when it comes to the way she dresses. "They were so angry that I was confident, and they wanted to let me know that they would never wank over me," she said of the public response after she rocked a completely sheer top in 2022. "I feel like I am now getting into this groove in my career where I’m knowing what I can take, what I give, and what I will not accept anymore."

British Vogue conducted the 2024 interview with Pugh.

Vanity Fair conducted the 2023 interview with Pugh.