Florence Pugh talks with Cara Delevingne prior to the F1 Grand Prix of Great Britain at Silverstone Circuit on July 09, 2023 in Northampton, England. Photo / Getty Images
Florence Pugh talks with Cara Delevingne prior to the F1 Grand Prix of Great Britain at Silverstone Circuit on July 09, 2023 in Northampton, England. Photo / Getty Images
Opinion by Vera Alves
NZ Herald Planning Editor and Herald on Sunday columnist
There have been a few headlines lately about actress Florence Pugh and her latest hairstyle. The actress, who stars in Christopher Nolan’s latest film Oppenheimer, decided to chop her long locks and go for a buzz cut.
She first debuted the new look at the Met Gala a coupleof months ago but has now explained what led to the bold new hairstyle.
In an interview with Radio Times, Pugh said she wanted “vanity out of the picture”.
“I purposefully chose to look like that. I wanted vanity out of the picture. 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,” she said.
She also explained that, as an actress, she doesn’t often feel like she has control over her own public image and has had to “fight” to control it.
“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,” she added. “Vanity is gone. The only thing that people can look at then is your raw face,” the actress added.
For anyone following Pugh’s career and public comments, none of this should come as a shock. She has long been vocal against Hollywood’s body and beauty standards.
Earlier this year, in a video done with Vogue, she shared another passion of hers (cooking) while chatting to viewers about all sorts of subjects, including body image and her relationship with food.
“Body image for women is a major thing. From the moment you start growing thighs and bums and boobs and all of it, everything starts changing. And your relationship with food starts changing,” she said.
“I had a weird chapter at the beginning of my career, but that was because I wasn’t complying. I think that was confusing to people, especially in Hollywood.
“Women in Hollywood, especially young women in Hollywood, are obviously putting themselves in all these ways in order to get whatever opportunity that they need to get because that’s just the way that it’s been,” she continued.
“I think I definitely put my foot down in that aspect. I love food.”
In an interview for the magazine around the same time, she talked about how, at the end of the day, under all the Hollywood glamour, she’s still just a human.
“We are human; we are bodies. Yes, I can put makeup on and look good for a premiere. But at the end of the day, I still have hair on the top of my lip and I still smell after a workout and I still get spots when I’m stressed. I think that attitude definitely has trickled down from when I was a child,” she said.
In another interview, with Vanity Fair, she also pointed out that it’s important to her that her fans know her red carpet looks are not her real image.
“There’s no pretending with me. When I put on makeup and step in a wonderful dress, I give credit to the people that made me look like that, and I also want my fans to know that (a) I don’t look like that all the time and (b) I also have stress acne, and I also have hairy eyebrows, and I also have greasy hair,” she said.
“It isn’t the first time and certainly won’t be the last time a woman will hear what’s wrong with her body by a crowd of strangers, what’s worrying is just how vulgar some of you men can be,” she wrote on Instagram. “So many of you wanted to aggressively let me know how disappointed you were by my ‘tiny tits,’ or how I should be embarrassed by being so ‘flat chested.’”
“I’ve lived in my body for a long time. I’m fully aware of my breast size and am not scared of it. What’s more concerning is ... Why are you so scared of breasts? Small? Large? Left? Right? Only one? Maybe none? What. Is. So. Terrifying.”
Pugh’s buzz cut, and its various colourful iterations, is, in the grand scheme of things, no big deal. At the end of the day, it’s a haircut - how radical and groundbreaking can it be? It’s also only one in a long list of her acts of defiance against Hollywood beauty standards.
But it’s also a big deal, because anything that dares to challenge these damaging beauty ideals is a big deal (even if it comes from someone who has the privilege of fitting within that prescribed ideal).
And judging by how many people feel the need to comment on what Pugh, and other women in the public eye, do with their bodies, it is very clear that more drawback is needed.
We’re lucky to have Pugh fighting the fight - and looking stunningly fierce while she does it.
