Florence Pugh is an Oscar nominated actor. Yes, she has a track record of absolutely killing it on the red carpet. And, yes, she's not shy when it comes to taking fashion risks. But just because she's been known that serving looks on press tours doesn't mean you should compare Florence to models on the runway.
The actor opened up about having to pull double duty (actor and fashionista) during promotion for big films like Thunderbolts* in a new interview with Who What Wear. “It's not the same thing. It's not the same thing at all,” she said. “It's just mental that red carpets are even an expectancy of someone that is not... That's not even their job. ...They don't model. They are good at being on a camera that is this close with that face, and they know how to show how raw their soul is on the flick of a switch. That's their talent.”
Expecting actors to be good at wearing couture and posing for photographs, Florence says, is expecting them to do something other than their job, which is acting.“That's what they're getting paid to do, and that's what we recognize them for. And you're supposed to be able to be like a runway model, and you're compared against runway models.”
A decade into her professional career, Florence has become somewhat of a red carpet pro and a regular at runway shows. In February, she even helped kick off the Harris Reed show at London Fashion Week. She's learned how to advocate for herself on set and built up her confidence. But when she first started to do photoshoots to promote a project, she was at a loss. “You don't know how it works. You feel so self conscious in the clothes. You feel like you're not doing them justice. You're not doing what a model is going to be able to do,” she recalled.
Even now as a certified movie star and red carpet regular, Florence said she still has moments of doubt on a red carpet or in a photoshoot when she has to remind herself that she's not there to be a professional model. “If I'm disappointed about how something turned out or looked, or if someone's saying something nasty about the dress that I was wearing, or if I was a bit too heavy for the dress, or a bit too this or that, or whatever shit someone wanted to say to me, I have to be like, ‘Babe, this is not even why you're... This is not your job,’”she said.
