Margaret Qualley Says Acting Career Was Overwhelming at First

Margaret Qualley says starting her acting career at a young age was not easy.

In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, the 31-year-old actress shared that she felt overwhelmed in her late teens and early 20s. Although she had already worked as a model, stepping into acting brought new pressures.

“I started working so young, and when I first started acting, I was just overwhelmed,” Qualley said.

Qualley is the daughter of actress and model Andie McDowell and former model Paul Qualley. Her early acting work included the HBO drama The Leftovers in 2014 and the 2016 action-comedy The Nice Guys, where she appeared alongside Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe.

She said that during those early years, she felt afraid to fully be herself.

“I felt like if I was fully myself, women would hate me and men would hurt me,” she explained. “So that took away some of the tools that come with being a woman because I was scared.”

Now, she says she feels more in control of her life and is learning to embrace her feminine side. Still, she admits she can be hard on herself and describes herself as “supercompetitive” and “very driven.”

Qualley also said she has made mistakes in her career. However, she clarified that she does not regret her choices. “I don’t mean it was the wrong thing,” she said. “I mean I wouldn’t do it again.”

Her husband, music producer Jack Antonoff, whom she married in 2023, has helped her grow more confident.

“Jack has helped me for sure, because he has made me feel more confident to explore all the parts of myself,” she said.

Through Antonoff, she also became friends with pop star Taylor Swift, whose music he has produced for more than 10 years.

Qualley has built an impressive acting career. She appeared in the 2019 film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and earned Golden Globe and Emmy nominations for her role in the Netflix drama Maid.

Her latest film, The Substance, received strong praise. The movie earned a 13-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival and brought her a second Golden Globe nomination. Some critics said she was unfairly left out of the 2025 Academy Award nominations.

Qualley has said the role pushed her emotionally and physically. In interviews, she explained that pretending to feel confident when she did not was especially difficult. She also described the dancing scenes as “brutal.”

The prosthetics used in the film also affected her. On the Happy Sad Confused podcast, she revealed that it took about a year to recover physically. At one point, she said, the effects were so hard on her face that certain shots had to avoid close-ups.

The Substance is now streaming on HBO Max. Qualley’s next film, How to Make a Killing, co-starring Glen Powell, will be released in theaters on Feb. 20.