“Even at the beginning of my career, I was always fighting to control my image,” the 27-year-old actress told the Radio Times.
Florence Pugh is getting candid about her decision to shave her head.
In an interview with the Radio Times, per Daily Mail, the Academy Award nominee — who debuted her buzzcut at the Met Gala in May — revealed she decided to go for the new hairstyle in order to take “vanity out of the picture,” and to keep herself looking as natural as possible.
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“I purposefully chose to look like that. I wanted vanity out of the picture,” Pugh, 27, said. “Hollywood is very glamorous — especially for women — and it’s hard for an audience to see past that. Whenever I’ve not needed to be glam or have a full face of makeup, I fight to keep it that way. It helps the audience.”
“Vanity is gone. The only thing that people can look at then is your raw face,” the actress continued.
“Even at the beginning of my career, I was always fighting to control my image,” she added. “It helps me when I’m wearing less makeup because then I’m less of a sparkly thing on screen. I feel like I’m allowed to do ugly faces, like it’s more acceptable.
The Oppenheimer star first revealed her buzzcut when she hit the red carpet at the 2023 Met Gala in May. While her ‘do has grown a bit in the months since, she’s continued to change things up by rocking different hair colors.
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Earlier this month, Pugh revealed a new pastel pink hair color at the Valentino Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2023 show as part of Paris Fashion Week. And last week, she swapped the pink ‘do for orange at the UK premiere of Oppenheimer, with her hair color coordinating with both her burnt orange gown and the film’s logo and poster.
Pugh has previously spoken out about beauty standards in Hollywood.
In an interview with The Telegraph back in October, the Little Women actress opened up about the pressure to change her appearance when she first got to Hollywood.
At 19 years old, Pugh landed a television series, Studio City which she says made her feel “very lucky and grateful, and couldn’t believe that I had got this top-of-the-game job.” However, she was unprepared for the industry itself.
“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,” Pugh recalled.
“I’d thought the film business would be like [my experience of making] The Falling,” she said, referencing her first acting role at age 17, “but actually, this was what the top of the game looked like, and I felt I’d made a massive mistake.”
