'Black Widow' actress Florence Pugh faced body-shaming early in her career

Florence Pugh, one of the stars of the upcoming Black Widow movie, revealed that she was a victim of body shaming in her first acting job.

The actress stated she was able to overcome her body image issues at a relatively young age because of the unfavorable experience.

Embracing Womanhood

The 23-year-old actress was recently the December 2020 digital cover star for Glamor. In her interview with Glamour, she talked about many women-related issues, from the changes she experienced in her body after puberty and the body-shaming she faced early in her career.  

In her interview, the vibrant actress confessed she had difficulty adjusting to her body’s changes as she moved into womanhood.

The Little Women actress expressed that the most challenging part about growing up was accepting that the pace at which her body developed didn’t match with her mental preparedness towards womanhood.

In addition, Pugh admitted coming to terms with the realization that girls, after going through puberty, were forced to grow up mentally, as their bodily changes opened them up to sexual objectification.

Touted as one of the most promising performers of her generation, Pugh shared one of her oddest moments of puberty, which she faced at 12. She remembered being heavily stared at in one of her gigs.

The actress said:

They were just looking at me because I now had boobs and a bum! It was one of the oddest moments of puberty for me.

Pugh Labels Body Shaming A Pressing Issue 

While talking about another instance where Pugh felt an uneasy observation of her body, the actress discussed her experience during the early phase of her acting career. 

When the actress was 17, she starred in The Falling alongside Maisie Williams. Pugh shared an unpleasant experience she had during the filming of the movie. 

The Black Widow actress admitted that the production team made it very apparent to her that she needs to lose weight. Coming out of the experience, the actress was sure she didn’t want to be part of such projects. Another positive aspect of the experience was the newfound confidence she felt about her body image. 

The star admitted she was one of the lucky people to have come out a winner from this experience. Nonetheless, she does not fail to address that many women are not as fortunate.

The incident, however, left the actress feeling more aware of the trend of recent body-shaming on social media. Although the actress doesn’t take social media seriously, she admits to knowing many women who do, including her younger sister. 

Pugh expressed that the problem with social media is that it is based around people’s insecurities, and its popularity among young people suggests that body shaming on social media is one of the most pressing issues that young women are facing.