If you’ve seen Midsommer, you might have chuckled a little bit at this cover. I think it’s meant to be sartorially evocative of Midsommer with the floral and the hat/headpiece, don’t you? Anyway, Florence is now an Oscar-nominated actress. She was surprise-nominated for Little Women, in the supporting category. It’s one of those moments where an actor had several good films in a year but the Academy just chose to nominate her for one. Personally, I would have loved to see a bigger push for Pugh to get a lead-actress nomination for Midsommer. So here we are, Florence is British, young, blonde and talented. Of course Anna Wintour put her on a pre-Oscar cover. You can see her full Vogue profile here. Some highlights:
Working on the Marvel film, Black Widow: “I didn’t quite know what it was to be involved in one of these films. Obviously you have to be physically able because the whole point is that you’re a superhero.” Pugh says the story “deals with some really hard things. It’s rough and painful and emotional and funny, and not in any way. . . girly. It’s about broken women picking up the pieces.”
She loves cooking & hosting: To this day, she finds making food for someone “one of the simplest but most wonderful ways to have a date.”
She first came to LA for the pilot Studio City. She was 19. But she had “a horrid time,” she recalls, with her weight an open topic of conversation. “I had a bit of a meltdown,” she says now. “When it didn’t go through, that was when I realized how relieved I was.”
On playing Amy in Little Women: Her version of Amy is “not such a whiny tit.” Pugh herself never disliked Amy when she read the book. “I love all the incredibly spoiled characters, because they always represent that voice in our heads. Amy basically says everything she wants to say. She doesn’t care. So I was obviously ecstatic to play her.”
I came into this interview not knowing anything about Florence’s personal life or family, and so this is my opinion based solely on this piece: she’s a nice British girl, not very posh, sort of low-key and boho and she seems like a nice person. She’s a people-person too, which makes her stand out in a sea of actors claiming to be nervous, shy, disaffected loners. She’s happy around people, and she makes friends easily. She seems like a cool young woman.
Cover & Instagram courtesy of Vogue.
Watch Lady Macbeth if you haven’t yet. She’s amazing. Became a big fan after seeing her in it.
What is this woman doing with Zach Braff?!?
I haven’t seen either of the movies she’s starred in, but I really like the sound of her. Piffle to people commenting on her weight. I think she has a lovely figure, and while on the slender side still looks more like a “regular” person than a movie star. I HATED that pink dress she wore the other day though, the one the Fug Girls basically called a glorified beach cover up. I think she has some learning to do sartorially.
I first saw her in Lady Macbeth and was completely floored by her talent. Besides I am very impressed by the way she chooses her projects. Pugh reminds me a little bit of Jennifer Lawrence back in the day, only much less annoying.
She’s dating Zach Braff. That is enough to make me super side eye her. Her Instagram is also pretty annoying.
She keeps reminding me of someone and now I finally see it… hayden panettiere!
Right, you are spot on!
YES. Thank you for this, because it’s been driving me nuts. I was thinking slight Olsen vibes, but Hayden fits much better.
I’ve seen four of her films (Lady Macbeth, Fighting With My Family, Midsommar and Little Women) and she was brilliant in all of them. She’s the real deal. Dating Zach Braff seems like something she’ll be embarrassed about in a few years, but whatever. Hope she’s having her fun now.
Let’s hope
I think she was in Outlaw/King on Netflix with Chris Pine and she was also really good in that
She was awesome in Working with my Family, and I liked her in Little Women as well. Not impressed by her peronal relationship choices, but that’s really none of my business and who knows why some people connect and others don’t. She clearly isn’t using him to get ahead in her career. She seems like she has a strong personality. It’ll be interesting to see her in more films and get to know her better.
Her playing Amy as a 12 year old was ridiculous to me. I found her quite annoying and it made it hard for me to get in to Little Women. I prefer the version with Kirsten Dunst. I am shocked she was nominated for an Oscar for it but am looking forward to seeing Midsommar.
I think her Amy portrayal is the best of all the film Amys. Kirsten Dunst did a nice job with young Amy but Samantha Matthis was flat and you didn’t see the process of Amy evolving from a bratty adolescent to an accomplished young woman who knows her strengths and weaknesses. Florence shows that evolution. Her young Amy isn’t awful, she’s just the sometimes annoying younger sister who wants to keep up with her admired older siblings and does bad stuff out of spite when she can’t. Sisters are like that. We see her grow into an accomplished, thoughtful young woman, who like many women at that time, knew that they had to “marry well” in order to care for their parents and siblings. Florence conveys Amy’s recognition of that well and she saves Laurie. Louisa was extremely close to her sister May, a talented artist in her own right, and raised her daughter when May died young. Louisa’s writing desk is under a wooden panel in the house that May painted. I was thrilled to see it in the film.
I grew up in Concord, MA. It was a thrill to tour their actual home. In Amy’s room are little pencil drawings allover the place, on the woodwork, near windows, etc.
And on the ceiling in one room! I love that they encouraged her to draw on the walls. I donated to a fundraiser they had a few years ago because some sort of bug was eating the wood and they wanted to save her drawings. They have some of her more formal paintings framed downstairs and, of course, the painted floral panel, which I love. That little house is a treasure; you can feel the family’s presence still.
“she’s a nice British girl, not very posh, sort of low-key and boho and she seems like a nice person”
Speaking as a not-posh Brit – she is very posh (her and her siblings names are a clue that she’s very posh: those names are usually only found in the fanciest of postcodes in the UK) and she’s only ever attended very exclusive private schools. Low-key, boho, etc? Yep, maybe. Not very posh? No – she’s another in that very long line of super posh British actors.
I haven’t seen Little Women yet, but I loved her in Fighting with My Family and Midsommar. And became properly obsessed with her after watching her making ice cream on her ig stories.
And yes, I’ll continue to ignore she’s dating Zach Braff.
I just watched Little Women a week ago and it DESTROYED ME. I was not expecting it. Greta was robbed of the nomination! I loved Florence Pugh and think she’s so compelling to watch- her voice is so great… I’m excited to see what happens for her!
I never could get over Amy marrying Laurie in the book, lol. Not even so much for the Jo/Laurie ship sinking but simply because I couldn’t possibly imagine that marrying Jo’s sister wasn’t without an element of spite and would lead to anything happy down the road. I get what Alcott was going for, but through a modern lens, it didn’t work for me.
I’ve liked her in what we’ve seen, though. She has the talent. Awards just need to start caring about female work.