Florence Pugh
Actress
| Date of Birth | : | 03 Jan, 1996 |
| Place of Birth | : | Oxford, United Kingdom |
| Profession | : | Actress |
| Nationality | : | British |
Florence Rose Pugh (born 3 January 1996) is an English actress. She made her acting debut in 2014 in the drama film The Falling. Pugh gained recognition in 2016 for her leading role as a young bride in the independent drama Lady Macbeth, winning a British Independent Film Award, and drew praise for starring in the miniseries The Little Drummer Girl (2018).
Pugh's international breakthrough came in 2019 with her portrayals of professional wrestler Paige in the biographical sports film Fighting with My Family, a despondent American woman in the horror film Midsommar, and Amy March in the period drama Little Women. For the last of these, she received nominations for an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award. Pugh was awarded the Trophée Chopard at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival.
She has played Yelena Belova in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, beginning with Black Widow (2021). The next year, she starred in the thriller Don't Worry Darling and drama The Wonder, and voiced Goldilocks in the animated film Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. Pugh also portrayed Jean Tatlock in Christopher Nolan's biographical film Oppenheimer (2023), her highest-grossing release.
Early life
Florence Rose Pugh was born on 3 January 1996 in Oxford to dancer Deborah and restaurateur Clinton Pugh. She has three siblings: actor and musician Toby Sebastian, actress Arabella Gibbins, and Rafaela "Raffie" Pugh. She suffered from tracheomalacia as a child, which led to frequent hospitalisations. The family relocated to Manilva in Spain when Pugh was three years old, hoping the warmer weather would improve her health. They lived there until she was six, when they moved back to Oxford.
At six years old, Pugh played Mary in a school nativity play, for which she spoke in a Yorkshire accent. She was privately educated at Wychwood School and St Edward's School, Oxford, but disliked how the schools did not support her acting ambitions.
Career
Early roles (2014–2018)
While still studying in sixth form, Pugh made her professional acting debut in the 2014 drama The Falling, playing a precocious teenager opposite Maisie Williams. Tara Brady of The Irish Times deemed Pugh "remarkable", while IndieWire's Oliver Lyttelton called her "striking". In the same year, Pugh was nominated for Best British Newcomer at the BFI London Film Festival as well as for Young British / Irish Performer of the Year by the London Film Critics' Circle. The next year, she was cast as a singer-songwriter in the dramedy pilot Studio City, co-starring Eric McCormack as the character's father. The pilot was not picked up to series. Pugh later characterised her experience on Studio City negatively due to pressures to change her appearance.
In 2016, Pugh starred in the independent drama Lady Macbeth, a film based on Nikolai Leskov's novella Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, and appeared in the first series of the ITV detective series Marcella. In the former, she played Katherine, an unhappily married bride who grows violent. Pugh attributed her attraction to the part to her partiality to characters with "confusing or at least interesting" motivations. The role earned her acclaim. She also credited the production with reviving her interest in cinema after being dispirited by Studio City. Reviewing the film for Variety, Guy Lodge commended her portrayal of the character's "complex, under-the-skin transformation". She won the BIFA Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a British Independent Film for the role.
In 2018, Pugh was nominated for the BAFTA Rising Star Award at the 71st British Academy Film Awards. She then played Cordelia to Anthony Hopkins's titular King Lear in Richard Eyre's television film King Lear and appeared in the short film Leading Lady Parts in support of the Time's Up initiative. Later that year, Pugh portrayed Elizabeth de Burgh in the Netflix historical film Outlaw King, co-starring Chris Pine as Robert the Bruce. Charles Bramesco of The Guardian found her to be "excellent despite her thankless role". She next starred in a six-part miniseries adaptation of John le Carré's spy novel The Little Drummer Girl, in which she played an actress who becomes embroiled in an espionage plot. Her performance was met with praise. While divided on the series overall, Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair called Pugh "terrific throughout" and added that she "smartly mixes earthiness with sophistication, wisdom with naïveté."
Breakthrough and critical recognition (2019–present)
Pugh starred in three major films in 2019, during which she was recognised as having experienced an international breakthrough. She first played professional wrestler Paige in Fighting with My Family, a comedy-drama about Paige's career. The film premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival to positive reviews. Geoffrey Macnab of The Independent called Pugh "completely convincing as the wrestler", adding that she showed "the same defiance, scruffy glamour and self-deprecating humour as the real life ... Paige". Pugh next headlined Ari Aster's horror film Midsommar, which chronicles an American couple, played by her and Jack Reynor, who travel to Sweden and encounter a cult. Critics complimented Pugh's portrayal of the desolate Dani Ardor, with David Edelstein of Vulture calling it "amazingly vivid".
In her final film release of the year, Pugh starred in Little Women, a period drama film adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's novel of the same name directed by Greta Gerwig. She portrayed Amy March, a fickle artist, from age 12 into adulthood, and has said that the character is in a "sweet spot of not knowing how to deal with her emotions". The film received critical acclaim and grossed $209 million. In his review, David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter praised the "disarming grace, humor and a willful streak that grows almost imperceptibly into wisdom" with which Pugh managed the part's "tricky contradictions". Pugh earned nominations for the BAFTA and Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.
Pugh portrayed Yelena Belova, a spy, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero film Black Widow. She said the film was about "girls who are stolen from around the world". Released in 2021, it garnered positive reviews from critics, who highlighted Pugh's performance. Caryn James of BBC Culture credited Pugh for making Belova "the most vibrant person in the film, more lived-in than most action-movie characters".She reprised the role in the Disney+ series Hawkeye later in the year.
In 2022, Pugh starred in the thriller Don't Worry Darling, directed by Olivia Wilde, and the drama The Wonder, an adaptation of Emma Donoghue's namesake novel. While filming the former, she allegedly clashed with Wilde, causing her to limit the amount of promotion she did for the film. Don't Worry Darling premiered at the 79th Venice International Film Festival, where critics deemed Pugh's performance superior to the film. In The Wonder, she played a nurse in 1862 who is sent to investigate an alleged supernatural miracle. Kevin Maher of The Times found Pugh's "impossibly vivid and convincing" performance to be the film's prime asset. In her final release of the year, she voiced Goldilocks in the DreamWorks animated film Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, which earned over $480 million worldwide.
Zach Braff's drama film A Good Person (2023), in which Pugh stars as a car crash survivor, marked her first producing venture. Instead of opting for a wig, Pugh cut off her own hair for the part. She also wrote and sang two songs, "The Best Part" and "I Hate Myself", for the film's soundtrack. In Christopher Nolan's biographical film Oppenheimer, starring Cillian Murphy in the title role, Pugh played Communist Party USA member Jean Tatlock. Empire's Dan Jolin wrote that she "elegantly dominate her few scenes". With a worldwide gross of over $948 million, Oppenheimer is Pugh's highest-grossing release.
Pugh will next play Princess Irulan in Dune: Part Two, a sequel to the 2021 science fiction film. She will also star opposite Andrew Garfield in John Crowley's romance We Live in Time. She shaved her head for her role in the film.
Public image
Pugh is known for her dress sense, with publications such as Harper's Bazaar and British Vogue calling her fashion choices "bold", "daring" and "unique". At a Valentino show in 2022, she wore a sheer pink gown, which led to some backlash as it showed her nipples. Commenting on the reception, she defended her choice and her body on Instagram. A year later, she wore another transparent gown to a Valentino event.
Pugh was included on the entertainment category of Forbes magazine's annual 30 Under 30 list, which recognises the 30 most influential people in Europe under the age of 30, in 2019. Time magazine placed her on the artists category of its 100 Next list, which highlights rising stars and emerging leaders in their fields, in 2021. In 2023, the magazine featured her in their Next Generation Leaders list. In a 2022 readers' poll by Empire magazine, she was voted one of the 50 greatest actors of all time. Terming her "one of the very best of her generation", the magazine attributed her success to bringing "a grounded empathy to her characters".
Personal life and other work
From 2019 to 2022, Pugh was in a relationship with American actor and filmmaker Zach Braff. They met while working together on the short film In the Time It Takes to Get There, which Braff directed, and lived together in Los Angeles.
From 2013 to 2016, Pugh performed cover songs under the name Flossie Rose on YouTube. She was featured on her brother's song "Midnight", released on 15 May 2021. In 2020, she participated in the series Acting for a Cause for a live reading of Kenneth Lonergan's play This Is Our Youth to help raise funds for the Entertainment Industry Foundation, a nonprofit organisation, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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