Florence Pugh's career has assumed an upward ascent since her breakthrough performance in 2014 as Abbie Mortimer in Carol Morley's mystery drama The Falling.
With one Academy Award nomination and two BAFTA selections, the UK-born actress has impressed both sides of the Atlantic, delivering a brand of acting that assumes a talent across multiple genres and character types. She is natural and sincere, strong yet vulnerable.
Little Women kicked off the charge, a movie that saw her acknowledged for her supporting role alongside Saoirse Ronan and Emma Watson. More recently, she has embraced the dystopian side in last year's Don't Worry Darling.
And in A Good Person, she ticks off another bucket list item by starring alongside Morgan Freeman. It's a movie that will tug on the heartstrings and bring the 27-year-old actress closer to the status where it seems she can do little wrong. With the biographical drama Oppenheimer to come in July, then the big one, Dune: Part Two, features a quality of the cast that can only be described as "opulent," Pugh's upward ascent can only increase further.
STRIPLV: A year ahead that encompasses three very different types of film. Which of the three was the most significant physical and emotional challenge? PUGH: That's probably a question that's impossible to answer, though I will try [laughs]! I think it's natural to look towards Dune because it's a movie that comes with such a big reputation and a budget to match, but that's too simple a way to look at things in this industry. I think A Good Person really has a depth and clarity that I relate to. As an actor, you want a movie to bring out the best in you, and not many do. I have worked on many projects where you might feel a good side of you came across, but you didn't fully push yourself to the limit, and in this film, I totally feel that. STRIPLV: What was it like to work with Morgan Freeman? PUGH: It's a dream really. He is an icon of modern film and has a presence that is as real in the flesh as it is on film. He is such a calm and rational man and gentle too. It's amazing for an actor such as myself to be working with people who were legends to me when I was just a child or a teenager imagining what it would be like to be someone who could make a career out of acting. I think back to watching him in Shawshank Redemption, which was a movie that really influenced me because he was such a flawed yet powerful character in there, so wise yet in a place that epitomized his mistakes, and I loved that contrast. I love the idea, as an actor, that you can be all-powerful and consuming yet still have imperfections and faults because, ultimately, that is what we all are as people. Superheroes and all that are very well, but it's fantasy. And that's fine, we all need to submit to fantasy from time to time, but I think there is greater strength and greater honesty in admitting that we are not like that all of the time. It's truth, and the truth is vital. STRIPLV: You have made incredible strides over such a short time. When you get people like Scarlett Johansson commenting positively on your career, you know you must be doing something right. PUGH: Oh, really? What did she say? That's rather exciting, isn't it? STRIPLV: Scarlett said that you're grounded and happy in your own skin, making you an icon of your generation… PUGH: Oh, right. I knew that. I mean, I knew she had said that, not that I knew that I'm an icon for my generation. It's a lovely thing to have said about you, even if you don't feel it, and I don't feel it. I never set out to be that, and I don't think it's even that healthy to be that, but ultimately the leading lights in this industry end up with that sort of adulation heaped on them. It's a strange concept because, ultimately, what people know you for isn't you – you are acting out someone else – so it's perverse in a way that they can really say you are anything at all. STRIPLV: You've said that you love playing the role of a distressed woman. Why is that? PUGH: I don't really want to typecast myself as that, but by default, an actor will often want to venture to the dark side. Sure, I have done Marvel, and that's the acceleration of an idea to a level of power and triumph, and that's great. Yet I think it's fair to say that a lot of actors want to search the depths and find out more about themselves that way. I think that's only something you will do if you are happy with yourself in everyday life. You're almost daring your mind to stray into the darkness, and that's really cool, but you have to be in the right frame of mind in the first place. I also think there is as much victory in that type of role than there is playing Yelena in Black Widow. Your end goal in one is power and triumph; in a film like A Good Person, it's happiness and content. Which is more important? I think they both are. STRIPLV: So, that answers the next question. Are you open to a diversity of roles? PUGH: Absolutely, I couldn't think of anything worse for myself if I was only ever considered for the same type of characters that I had played earlier on in my career. That's not to say that typecast actors aren't ambitious or adventurous. That's just not me. They are just comfortable doing those roles, and I think when you're really, really good at something, why should you change? There's no board of control or judgment that says that you have to vary your acting roles, but I just want to. It means I can carry on testing myself and working with some of the greats of film. STRIPLV: Who else really inspires you in that regard? PUGH: Well, when you're around directors like Christopher Nolan, Denis Villeneuve, and Sebastián Lelio, you really appreciate the skill and the craft. This isn't something that can be learned quickly, and some things I see just cannot be learned. That is what inspires me. It's an inherent talent, the kind of thing that you would expect of a pianist or a classical musician. As for actors, well, the likes of Christopher Walken, Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, and Javier Barden, need I say more? I feel like I am just name-dropping, but it's been brilliant to work with these people who I have so much respect for, and I'm looking forward to seeing what the audiences think of what we have done. STRIPLV: Dune Part Two comes from a place of needing to prove itself, would you agree? PUGH: I think it's unusual to have such confidence behind a project that didn't do as well as people it expected it to in terms of the initial new adaptation. At the time, the world was living through Covid, and the challenges for everyone were great. I think now we have restored a sense of normality, there is every reason to put an even increased presence behind this, and that's what the backers have done. It's exciting to be back involved in a project that has so much financial power behind it because it does make things easier, as well as making expectations greater. STRIPLV: And Oppenheimer? PUGH: Christopher Nolan has another blockbuster, and it was such a privilege to be involved with that one which is a biopic based on one of the physicists who was involved in the Manhattan Project, leading to the atomic bomb. The amazing Cillian Murphy plays the lead role and the part of J Robert Oppenheimer. My character is based on the woman who became romantically involved with Oppenheimer and was also part of the Communist Party, which obviously caused panic in the government. STRIPLV: You've spoken a lot in the past about fear and how healthy you have found it to embrace fear and uncertainty in your acting. PUGH: Fear in acting is only really about the future. When you are on stage, or the cameras are rolling, you don't feel fear. I'm sure there are many careers and instances where fear is in the very moment, and it grips you in much the same way as we pretend we are gripped by fear when we are acting. What is interesting is that we are all fakers because I don't know a single actor who is genuinely gripped by fear at the moment, even though they can portray it so well. When you learn that fear is just a perception of the future and that in that exact moment of it being played out, it is absent, it frees you to take on the very biggest challenges. All of your experiences that have gone before prove to you that the fear you had is unfounded, so why then stop going for the very biggest of projects? STRIPLV: You have thought about this rather profoundly. PUGH: I think you have to. I think you owe it to yourself to really work out who you are, what you are capable of, and, more to the point, what will hold you back. If that thing that holds you back is something out of your control, like "Will I get cast for this movie?" then do everything in your power to try to make the situation work for you, try all you can to give yourself the best opportunity of success. If, on the other hand, what is holding you back is in your control, like tempering or conquering fear, then it's down to you to solve it. STRIPLV: Away from work, you seem very happy too. You've always kept your private life out of the public eye, which must help. PUGH: It can be difficult when there is so much speculation doing the rounds. It all sells, and I totally understand that, and I guess that when you are famous, you almost have to accept that people want to know about you. However, what I don't get, and I seriously don't like, is the fact that stories can be written about you, pictures taken with telephoto lenses, being interrupted on the street when you're just out getting shopping or whatever. I'm not complaining about fame, celebrity, or anything like that, but there is a darker side, and it can be tough to get your head around it at times. STRIPLV: Does the fact the press make things up frustrate you? PUGH: In truth, I'm more concerned when things are true! When that happens, it makes me wonder who has leaked something or who has been somewhere in my personal affairs that they shouldn't have been! I think a lot of people would be the same, and it would really frustrate them, but like I say, it's natural and expected, and the more I can focus on my films and doing well in them, the more I can accept the other side, so I keep focusing!
Unlikely heroes and heroines - Florence Pugh's entertainment icons
The Rock My expectation of Dwayne Johnson, when I knew I was set to meet him, was that there would, ultimately, be something wrong with him, a flaw, a failing that was very evident in person, but something that you couldn't pick up on from press interviews and the public persona put out there by his people.
"I just couldn't imagine someone could be so powerful, handsome, talented, charismatic without their being something fundamentally misfiring.
"It turns out I was wrong. The Rock really is perfect. His persona does indeed match up to the image, and most importantly, people really do like him in the way they are made out to.
"He's an incredible, inspirational, amazing man. I think the most amazing thing about him is that he just speaks to everybody exactly the same. That for me was the greatest thing and a really pleasant surprise.
"What's more, as far as hierarchy on the set goes, there was none.
"Dwayne is universally liked and such a big name, absolutely huge. To see somebody like that so humble and doing as well as he is, that was really cool."