Actor Florence Pugh touched off quite the furor last month when she wore a daringly sheer Valentino dress that bared her nipples to the designer's fashion show in Rome.
The body-shaming backlash from some corners of the internet was so intense Pugh addressed it head-on in a pointed post on Instagram.
But while lots of men on the internet had a problem with the gown, one person who pointedly did not was Pugh's grandmother.
In a new interview in Harper's Bazaar, Pugh revealed her grandmother's reaction to the dress—which was a gasp, but for all the right reasons.
\u201cThe "Don't Worry Darling" actor faced sexist online hate last month after she wore a sheer Valentino gown that exposed her breasts. https://t.co/hocMSOcRql\u201d— HuffPost (@HuffPost) 1660782021
In the interview, Pugh told the magazine the uproar over her bared nipples was so intense even her grandmother had heard about it.
She said:
"I went to see my gran, and she goes, ‘So what’s all of this business about your nipples then?’"
Pugh then said she showed her grandmother photos of the gown.
They left her shocked in the best way.
"She gasped. Because the dress was so beautiful.”
Amen, Gran.
Pugh's Gran's response is of course pointedly opposite to all too many people, most of them men, on the internet.
They excoriated Pugh's supposed lack of modesty and shamed her for having small breasts.
Of the uproar, Pugh told Harper's Bazaar she thinks it was all down to sour grapes.
“I was comfortable with my small breasts. And showing them like that—it aggravated [people] that I was comfortable.”
Expanding on the lengthy clapback she posted to Instagram at the time, Pugh went on to say:
“It was just alarming, how perturbed they were."
"They were so angry that I was confident, and they wanted to let me know that they would never wank over me."
"Well, don’t.”
Hear, hear.
On Twitter, most people were definitely on Pugh's Gran's side on this one.
\u201c@harpersbazaarus I love her!\u201d— Harper's Bazaar (@Harper's Bazaar) 1660652984
\u201cIn a time when audiences don\u2019t blink an eye to see a head decapitated or exploded or limbs hacked off in movies, the outrage is seeing a woman\u2019s nipple is truly obscene.\u201d— StephenC (@StephenC) 1660785510
\u201cNothing but respect for Pugh. She\u2019s earned every ounce of her success & notoriety. And I\u2019m glad to see she will continue to not take any of the BS.\u201d— Nikko (@Nikko) 1660668774
\u201c@harpersbazaarus Good. We should all be more like Florence with \u201cno-BS candor.\u201d\u201d— Harper's Bazaar (@Harper's Bazaar) 1660652984
\u201c@HuffPost Clearly the complainers did not live through the 70s, they would have had apoplexy back then\u2026\u201d— HuffPost (@HuffPost) 1660782021
\u201cnow see this is a woman who is true to herself. mad love and respect to Florence.\u201d— Djannette\ud83d\udd95\u00b369 (@Djannette\ud83d\udd95\u00b369) 1660655587
\u201cshe's so iconic, does she even know it like does she realize\u201d— z\ud83c\udf3b unreal unearth unstable \ud83c\udf44 (@z\ud83c\udf3b unreal unearth unstable \ud83c\udf44) 1660658755
\u201ci love a woman who\u2019s unapologetically herself\u201d— em | harry sing grapejuice (@em | harry sing grapejuice) 1660655079
\u201cShe's a legend\nShe's the moment\u201d— Sam || father of \ud83d\udc08\u200d\u2b1b\ud83d\udc08 QUAKE IS COMING BACK (@Sam || father of \ud83d\udc08\u200d\u2b1b\ud83d\udc08 QUAKE IS COMING BACK) 1660654901
Pugh also discussed her next project, the psychological thriller Don't Worry Darling in which she stars alongside Harry Styles and Olivia Wilde, who also directed.
The film releases next month.
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