Florence Pugh has made a deliberate choice not to pay attention to reviews, even as East of Eden continues to win over viewers following its release on Netflix last month.
During a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter at a FYC event for the series on Friday, November 13, the 30-year-old English actress opened up about avoiding reviews, admitting that being so emotionally invested in the adaptation made public reactions overwhelming.
“I can’t look at it, I can’t. It was too much with this one,” Pugh told the outlet.
She added, “The process of making this was so long and it had so many of my sticky fingerprints all over it — I was so nervous to release it because I was just going to be so sad if people didn’t understand it or didn’t like it.”
The one-time Academy Award nominee revealed that she had given so much of herself to the series that she did not want to know how it was being received, even if the response was negative.
“It was so much of my life and so much of me as a performer that I put into it that I just didn’t want to look. So I’m glad I didn’t but apparently people like it!” she insisted.
About East of Eden
Based on John Steinbeck’s 1952 novel, the miniseries features Pugh as both its lead star and executive producer. Christopher Abbott and Mike Faist also star in the series, which is written and co-run by Zoe Kazan.
East of Eden proved popular with Netflix viewers, garnering 6.5 million views within just four days of its release on October 1, 2026.