Oscars 2020: Breakout star Florence Pugh still stops to smell the roses
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In a year full of pinch-me moments, midway through 2019, Florence Pugh still hadn’t processed her meteoric rise.
“I think what’s so funny is when you’re in it, you’re constantly looking forward to the next thing,” she said in an interview with the Sun. “You rarely stop and have a look around to see who has got you there and how you got where you are.”
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At 24, Pugh is up for her first Oscar for her supporting work as Amy March in Greta Gerwig’s Little Women.
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Just three years ago, Pugh had yet to appear in a Hollywood film. But with three breakout performances in 2019 — including Little Women, the horror hit Midsommar and Fighting With My Family, which was loosely based on the story of WWE star Paige — Pugh has gone from almost total anonymity to one of Hollywood’s most promising fresh faces.
In May, she’ll join the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Yelena Belova in Black Widow, opposite Scarlett Johansson, Rachel Weisz and David Harbour.
Quizzed about the film’s plot last June, Pugh was savvy enough to respond, “I don’t really know what I’m supposed to say, so I’m going to say no comment.”
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But the variety of roles she’s willing to take on shows that the British-born actress is willing to push boundaries and stray into areas that are foreign to her.
She was admittedly not a fan of horror, but said that Ari Aster’s breakup movie Midsommar was a tale she could get behind. “It has a completely different palette of colours and a completely different rhythm,” she said. “It’s so visually stimulating and all of your senses are completely played with.”
Her hopscotch through genres has given Pugh an almost chameleon-like quality, which is something she loves. “When you’re emotionally invested in a story, it’s really exciting to watch,” she said. “And certainly to act in one of those films is exciting.”
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Pugh revealed the desire to act came at a young age. Her mother is a dance teacher and her siblings all work in the creative sphere as actors and musicians (her older brother, Toby Sebastian, played Trystane Martell on Game of Thrones). So it would seem that Pugh was destined for success.
As a youngster, she also posted videos of herself singing songs by Damien Rice, Tracy Chapman, Oasis and Jack Johnson to YouTube under the moniker Flossie Rose. In the videos, which she last updated three years ago, Pugh is emotive, offering hints at her future stardom. Pugh first earned acclaim for her acting in 2014’s The Falling. That led to more critical raves for her work in Lady Macbeth, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2016. She followed those with small parts alongside Liam Neeson in The Commuter, Chris Pine in Outlaw King and Alexander Skarsgard in The Little Drummer Girl in 2018.
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When she spoke to the Sun, we asked her what the younger version of herself would have thought of where she ended up. “I don’t really know what Florence from four years ago would have thought,” she mused.
With Black Widow — set in the immediate aftermath of 2016’s Captain America: Civil War — on the horizon, some have speculated that Pugh’s character, Yelena Belova, will have a bigger role in the MCU. After all, in the comics, Belova goes on to become a second Black Widow.
One thing is certain, though, Pugh will continue to make sure her very good year provides the building blocks for a career that she hopes will be full of daring choices.
“My dad told me to remember to keep smelling the roses and he forces me to appreciate everything so far,” she said. “I sometimes go back to places where I had big moments and I have a little think and I sit down and I give myself a mental pat on the back. That’s quite nice to do. It’s nice to go back and tell yourself, ‘You’ve done alright.’”
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