Florence Pugh was told to "lose weight" and "change the shape" of her face if she wanted a successful career in Hollywood.

Speaking to The Telegraph, the Don't Worry, Darling actor has opened up about her early days in the entertainment industry and revealed 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.

Pugh said: "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 UK-born Oscar-nominated Pugh's big role came in the 2014 mystery thriller  The Falling' and she went on to land a part in an American TV movie called Studio City. 

Pugh felt disappointed with her experience in the US 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 where she scored a leading role in 2016's Lady Macbeth, a project that rekindled her love for 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."

The Black Widow star insisted 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'."

Pugh, who has just wrapped Dune: Part 2, will next be seen in Netflix's Gothic horror The Wonder, which premieres on Nov 16. Don't Worry Darling will arrive on HBO Go on Nov 7.  

— BANG SHOWBIZ

Photo: TPG News/Click Photos