Quote Of The Day: Florence Pugh On Beauty

Florence Pugh is one of Hollywood’s busiest stars, playing assassin Yelena Belova in Marvel TV shows such as “Hawkeye,” and movies including “Black Widow,” “Thunderbolts*,” and this year’s “Avengers: Doomsday.” That’s all without mentioning her time as Princess Irulan in the “Dune” trilogy or the numerous dramas she’s starred in since 2014.

While Pugh is mainly known for her work in film, she’s also dabbled in TV over the years, playing a cam-girl thief in ITV’s 2016 thriller “Marcella.” In 2018, she led the BBC’s adaptation of John le Carré’s “The Little Drummer Girl,” which is one of the best TV shows based on a book. In it, she plays an actor in the 1970s who is recruited to be an Israeli spy.

Now, Pugh has returned to the small screen to lead Netflix’s “East of Eden,” where she plays Cathy Ames. To celebrate her role as the scheming matriarch, Pugh is today’s quote of the day. 

“Something that I’ve always been really keen on representing is some honesty with the way that we view ourselves. That’s something I’ve always appreciated watching actors that I’ve looked up to, is when they look like you and me, or they have a funny elbow, or they have, you know, a hairy face. I promised myself that if I were to do this, I couldn’t pretend to look like someone that I wasn’t, because that’s the whole point of what I’m trying to represent.”

Florence Pugh opened up about how she chooses her roles in Hollywood when speaking to Teen Vogue in 2019. At the time, she was just breaking out after starring in films like “Fighting With My Family,” “Little Women,” and “Midsommar.”

Much of the conversation revolved around how Pugh wanted Hollywood projects to better represent normal people as opposed to depicting an image of perfection. 

While Florence Pugh’s comments about Hollywood beauty standards apply to the industry, her words can serve as inspiration for any one of us. We might not look as perfect as the actors we watch in our favorite TV shows and movies, and that’s okay. For starters, many of those stars have personal trainers and chefs to help them stay in shape for whatever role they’re in, paid for by the studio as part of their contract.

Trying to maintain a screen-ready aesthetic is a full-time job in itself, so trying to do that as a normal person isn’t exactly easy. We should remind ourselves that it’s okay to be imperfect. 

Living a normal life is a gift and given how turbulent the last decade has been for the world, just getting through the day is a win. We could all learn to be a little kinder to ourselves instead of trying to meet impossible beauty standards.

• “I think we need to see more of every persona, shape, size, color, age, hair color. It’s so important to keep it broad, because for a while there’s been this very small amount of faces that can be seen and voices that will be heard, and we’re in this really special time right now where Hollywood is reeducating itself. It would be really wicked to see more fun, strange faces and more peculiar stories, because it’s a big world. There are a lot of people to cater to.” — from a 2019 interview with Teen Vogue

• “I think it’s good to not edit your life too much or you give people different standards. You’ve got a lot of people looking at your life and a lot of people thinking that’s normal and, ultimately, that’s why there is a lot of depression in young kids because they are growing up with these ‘perfect’ worlds on their phones and realizing that is not the way that their life is. In order for us to appreciate this world we have to be a bit more honest and I hope I do that.” — from a 2019 interview with The Standard