Florence Pugh brought a room full of A-listers close to tears with a powerful and emotive speech about vulnerability as she accepted the British Icon award from her friend, designer Harris Reed, at the ELLE Style Awards in London this evening.
The Don't Worry Darling star, who wore an Alexander McQueen dress, thanked Reed and her supporters in her speech.
‘I am loud, I am vulnerable, I am opinionated. I am right, but also wrong,’ she said.
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‘I am unbelievably stubborn. I am weak, I am headstrong,’ she added. ‘I don’t care what people think of me, but I also care what people think of me. I’ve done a lot of growing this year. I love to love and sometimes that means I get it wrong, but loving is very important.
‘I am protective, and I will always be protective of those who look up to me. Thank you to you and my supporters – I couldn’t have received this award without you all,’ the British actor continued, noting that she was ‘hugely grateful’ for the award.
Pugh, of course, needs little in the way of introduction. The Oxford-born star made her on-screen debut in The Falling at the age of 17 and, in the intervening decade, has firmly established herself as one of the British acting realm’s most glittering stars.
On staying grounded as her profile rises so astronomically, Pugh exclusively tells ELLE: ‘Having people that can take the p*ss out of me around me keeps me very real. It’s easy, in this industry, to go down the slippery slope of only being around people who compliment you. Knowing who I am – and who I’ve been from the very beginning – has allowed me to feel safe. There’s no grand reveal – it’s just me. Even in my style, I never wanted there to be a filter.’
Fashion and the self-expression that accompanies it has become one of Pugh’s outlets. ‘I speak the way I do about my body because I’m not trying to hide the cellulite on my thigh or the squidge in between my arm and my boob; I would much rather lay it all out,’ she says. ‘I think the scariest thing for me are the instances where people have been upset that I’ve shown ‘too much’ of myself. When everything went down with the Valentino pink dress a year ago, my nipples were on display through a piece of fabric, and it really wound people up. It’s the freedom that people are scared of, the fact I’m comfortable and happy.’
Other winners of this year’s ELLE Style Awards are Tems, Suki Waterhouse and Ncuti Gatwa.
Naomi May is a seasoned culture journalist and editor with over ten years’ worth of experience in shaping stories and building digital communities. After graduating with a First Class Honours from City University's prestigious Journalism course, Naomi joined the Evening Standard, where she worked across both the newspaper and website. She is now the Digital Editor at ELLE Magazine and has written features for the likes of The Guardian, Vogue, Vice and Refinery29, among many others. Naomi is also the host of the ELLE Collective book club.
