Florence Pugh Discusses Taking a Break from Acting and Dealing with Toxic Fans

Florence Pugh is currently one of Hollywood’s most in-demand young actresses, consistently landing major roles with no signs of slowing down. In the past two years, she has starred in several blockbusters.

In Oppenheimer (2023), she portrayed Jean Tatlock, and lent her voice to the character Kiriko in the English dub of The Boy and the Heron (2023). She takes on the role of Princess Irulan in Dune: Part Two (2024). Her latest film is We Live in Time, with the MCU’s Thunderbolts set for release next year, where she will reprise her role as Yelena Belova.

Understandably exhausted, the actress recently revealed to British Vogue that, for the first time in her career, she had to take a break from acting.

For the first time ever in my career when I’ve actually asked for a summer break. I’m an absolute work maniac, [but] I can see I’m exhausted. I suddenly woke up last year and I was like, ‘I hate how much of my life I’ve missed.’ Yes, I want to have a career forever, but that’s not going to happen if I work myself into the ground.

A key factor that likely contributed to her decision to take a break was the constant scrutiny of her body for not conforming to traditional beauty standards.

Despite her stunning appearance, toxic fans frequently find reasons to criticize her. In 2022, she responded to online backlash over wearing a sheer halterneck gown by telling people to stop fixating on her body. The intense public scrutiny she endures is overwhelming, and she has expressed that the internet can be a horrible place.

[The internet’s] a very mean place. It’s really painful to read people being nasty about my confidence or nasty about my weight. It never feels good. The one thing I always wanted to achieve was to never sell someone else, something that isn’t the real me. I don’t think it’s confidence in hoping people like me. I think it’s just, like, I don’t want to be anyone else.

Despite the criticism, the actress remains confident and assured, stating that she is not insecure and knows exactly the image she wants to project to the world.

but I’m not a model. It’s portraying a completely different version of myself that I don’t necessarily believe in. You have to believe that you deserve to be in those pages being beautiful. But now I know what I want to show. 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.

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