In an interview with The Guardian, Pugh explained that after her difficult experience in Los Angeles, she effectively decided she would not return until she understood what she wanted to represent. Her experience on Lady Macbeth helped her realize that she could succeed without reshaping herself into a stereotypical Hollywood figure.
That became a foundation for the career that followed.
She played emotionally complicated characters in films including Midsommar, Little Women, Black Widow, Don't Worry Darling, The Wonder and Oppenheimer.
The roles varied enormously.
So did the characters' personalities, backgrounds and physicality.
But Pugh's approach remained consistent.
She wanted the character to feel like a person.
Not a fantasy.
Not a body designed to satisfy an audience.
A person.
“How would this character have lived?”
Perhaps one of the clearest examples of Pugh's philosophy comes from the way she approaches physical preparation for roles.
Rather than automatically assuming that an actress needs to lose weight to look more glamorous on screen, she has said that she asks a more practical question.
How would this character actually have lived?
What would she have eaten?
What kind of life would she have had?
What would her body realistically look like?
In a Vogue interview, Pugh explained that she does not want to lose weight simply to “look fantastic” for a role. Instead, she thinks about the character's circumstances and lifestyle.
That distinction might sound subtle.
It is not.
There is a major difference between changing a body because a character's story requires it and changing a body because an industry believes the actress herself should be thinner.
One is storytelling.
The other is conformity.
Pugh appears determined to keep those two things separate.
Her approach also reflects something increasingly important in modern conversations about representation: bodies do not exist solely for visual consumption.
A character's physical appearance can tell a story.
But it does not have to tell the same story every time.
A woman can be strong without being extremely thin.
She can be beautiful without having a conventionally perfect figure.
She can be glamorous without hiding every perceived imperfection.
And she can be desirable without being presented as an idealized fantasy.
Her childhood shaped her relationship with the body
Pugh has often connected her confidence to the environment in which she was raised.
Vogue reported that her parents deliberately tried to preserve their children's innocence and that her childhood in Spain was marked by a relatively unselfconscious relationship with the body.
That background appears to have given her something that can be difficult to maintain once fame arrives: a sense that the body is ordinary.
Not shameful.
Not scandalous.
Not inherently sexual.
Just human.
That perspective became especially important during adolescence.
Pugh has spoken about how strange it was to watch her body change as she grew up. She recalled realizing that people were suddenly looking at her differently because she was developing breasts and curves.
The experience taught her how quickly young women can become sexualized simply because their bodies are changing.
It is a lesson that stayed with her.
Long before millions of people were commenting on her appearance online, Pugh had already experienced what it felt like to have her body suddenly become something other people believed they had a right to discuss.
That makes her later confrontation with online body-shamers even more significant.
She was not encountering the issue for the first time.
She had been thinking about it for years.
Then came the Valentino dress
In July 2022, Pugh attended Valentino's haute couture show in Rome wearing a sheer, bright pink gown.
The dress was deliberately revealing.
Pugh knew it would attract attention.
She wore it anyway.
And the reaction was immediate.
Instead of simply discussing the dress as fashion, large numbers of people focused on Pugh's breasts and body.
Some comments were openly cruel.
Others criticized her for choosing to appear in public in such an outfit.
The conversation quickly moved beyond fashion.
It became a referendum on whether a woman should be allowed to display her body without being sexualized, mocked or condemned.
Pugh responded directly.
She explained that she had anticipated commentary but was disturbed by how comfortable some people were publicly attacking a woman's body.
She questioned why people were so disturbed by breasts — whether they were small or large, or shaped differently from whatever standard someone had decided was acceptable.
Her argument was not simply that she should be allowed to wear a particular dress.
It was that other people should not feel entitled to define whether her body was acceptable.
Vogue described her response as a direct stand against body shamers, while The Guardian reported that she criticized the ease with which strangers — particularly men — publicly attacked her body online.