Florence Pugh Says 'Nasty' Comments About Her Weight Are 'Really Painful'

The 'We Live in Time' star says the Internet is “a very mean place” and it “never feels good” to read negative comments

Florence Pugh says the Internet is “a very mean place."

The We Live in Time actress spoke candidly about how negative comments about her body or personality can sometimes bring her down.

“It’s so hard,” Pugh, 28, told British Vogue for their October issue. “It’s really painful to read people being nasty about my confidence or nasty about my weight. It never feels good.”

She continued, “The one thing I always wanted to achieve was to never sell someone else, something that isn’t the real me.”

As she told Elle UK last year, “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.”

In British Vogue, she said her bluntness doesn’t come from a conscious effort to appear confident: “I think it’s just, like, I don’t want to be anyone else."

The Midsommar actress shared that magazine cover shoots — like the one she shot for British Vogue — are “a muscle I’ve learnt to be all right at.”

Related: Florence Pugh Didn't Let 'Excruciating Food Poisoning' Ruin a Good Time: 'Wouldn't Change a Thing'

“I’m not a model. It’s portraying a completely different version of myself that I don’t necessarily believe in. You have to believe that you deserve to be in those pages being beautiful,” Pugh said.

“But now I know what I want to show. I know who I want to show. I know who I want to be and I know what I look like. There’s no insecurities about what I am anymore.”

The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now!

The actress said she didn’t balk at shaving her head to play cancer patient Almut We Live in Time, which will be in theaters Oct. 11. It was “completely important that you see her head and we see her shaving it – it was just always a no-brainer," she said.

“You have the honour of doing something to yourself that is totally in support of the character,” Pugh said, adding “I’ve never found it a challenge to be acting in pain.”

Related: Florence Pugh Shuts Down 'Weird' Rumors About Why She Shaved Her Head for We Live in Time Role

In fact, she said, “I sometimes prefer it. That’s always the most important thing, whatever I do. I feel like it’s my duty to play human and ugly, to translate what looks real and what feels painful – whether that’s an ugly cry or a face that doesn’t settle or a stomach that sits [isn’t held in] when you’re naked.”

What’s important, she told the publication, is “that I’m a good person and people feel good in my presence.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.