Florence Pugh attends the 92nd Oscars Nominees Luncheon on Jan.27, 2020 in Hollywood, California. AFP

Actress Florence Pugh got candid about her early days in the entertainment industry. She shared that she was told to “lose weight” and “change the shape” of her face if she wanted a successful career in Hollywood. The 26-year-old actress revealed that she was horrified when she headed to Los Angeles as a teenager and industry bosses told her to make a number of changes to her appearance, reports aceshowbiz.com.

She told The Telegraph newspaper: “I felt very lucky and grateful, and couldn’t believe that I had got this top-of-the-game job ... (But) 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.”

The actress’ first big role came in 2014 movie “The Falling” and she went on to land a part in a TV movie called “Studio City,” but Florence felt disappointed with her experience in the States and worried she’d made the wrong career choice. She went on: “I’d thought the film business would be like (my experience of making) ‘The Falling’, but actually, this was what the top of the game looked like, and I felt I’d made a massive mistake.”

However, Pugh continued with her acting career back in her native UK and she scored a leading role in 2016’s ‘Lady Macbeth’ and she said the project made her “fall back in love with cinema.” She added: “I think it’s far too easy for people in this industry to push you left and right. And I was lucky enough to discover when I was 19 what kind of a performer I wanted to be.”

Pugh went on to insist that she wants to tackle roles that focus on her acting ability rather than her appearance, explaining: “When I could be naked at whatever size I was, and bare-faced, and the acting could speak for itself. There’s nothing for people to be distracted by — they can’t be like, ‘Oh, I don’t like the make-up.’ It was a wonderful reminder, ‘Oh, yeah — this is who you are.’”

Meanwhile, “Midsommar” star Florence Pugh is all set to headline the psychological thriller ‘The Pack with Swedish actor-director Alexander Skarsgard of ‘Big Little Lies fame directing and co-starring in the film. It is being billed as one of the hottest packages at next week’s American Film Market. The cameras are expected to roll in March next year, reports “Deadline.”

The film follows a group of documentarians who brave the remote wilderness of Alaska in an effort to save a nearly extinct species of wolves. When the crew is brought back together at a prestigious awards ceremony, tensions flare as a deadly truth threatens to unravel their work. According to ‘Deadline’, Jennifer Fox will produce the original script written by Rose Gilroy. The project has echoes of Fox-produced thriller “Nightcrawler.”

Indo-Asian News Service