Florence Pugh may have started off as an indie darling, but she’s a full-fledged bonafide movie star now. Apparently that rubs some people in the indie movie circuit the wrong way. Pugh has some things to say about this.
Time recently did a piece on Pugh with quite the title: “Florence Pugh Might Just Save the Movie Star From Extinction.” Those are big words, especially since movie stars are widely thought to be a relic from a bygone era. I guess if anyone can do it, it’s Pugh. She is a spectacular actress that reeks of likability.
Pugh is very popular, and only going to get more popular this year with roles in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune Part 2 and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer – two of the most anticipated movies of the year with two of the hottest directors around. All of that success understandably makes the indie community think she’s done with them.
“So many people in the indie film world were really pissed off at me. They were like, ‘Great, now she’s gone forever,’” she said. “And I’m like, no, I’m working as hard as I used to work. I’ve always done back-to-back movies. It’s just people are watching them now. You just have to be a bit more organized with your schedule.”
Ah, time management! That’s to secret to everything, isn’t it? Pugh said part of the secret to her artistic alchemy is how she can give an edge to a character. She often plays strong-willed women put in difficult positions, and she always has a spark that’s really energizing.
“Even if they’re not defined on the page, I always find some way to make them quite confrontational,” she said about the characters she plays. “I never see the bad in them—even when they have killed children and burned boyfriends. I’ve always understood them as people that needed to do what they had to do to survive.”
Another very Pugh quality is her ability to sidestep drama. For example, the movie Don’t Worry Darling was almost swallowed by the amount of press around its stars and director, but Pugh never said a disparaging word to anyone about anything. She came away from that movie with rave reviews for her portrayal of a 1950’s housewife stuck in some sort of sick male playground, which propelled her to even greater heights of popularity.
That movie ended up being a success in no small part to Pugh and how she not only handled the character but the situation as a whole. She has a bright future ahead of her, so I’m sure the indie community will welcome her back with open arms anytime she wants.
