For someone who spent stretches of her childhood cooped up at home instead of attending school due to a respiratory illness, the bright lights of Hollywood seemed like a faraway dream.
Far indeed, but not unattainable. Within a short handful of years, the 25-year-old British Florence Pugh has shown incredible range in her roles. 2019 was her breakout year, where she had displayed outstanding performances in three wildly different movies. In Little Women, she played the youngest March sisters opposite Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Timothy Chalamet and Meryl Streep. In Midsommar, she’s a slightly unhinged college student caught in a gruesome affair in a foreign land. And in Fighting with My Family (Lena Headey, Nick Frost and Vince Vaughn), she is an aspiring fighter who made good. She was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Award at the Oscars in 2021 for Amy March in Little Women.
But her talented acting isn’t the only thing that makes Pugh shine. It’s her personality that fans and audiences fall in love with. Here is why we adore her.
She is as Authentic as You Can Get
Pugh isn’t one to put on pretty filters and curate her social media feeds to death. She often puts up goofy pictures of her on set and off, and doesn’t care too much about nasty comments either. She once took to Instagram Stories to tell fans to back off about her relationship with fellow actor Zach Braff, whom fans think is too old for her. With her bare face and ruffled hair, she gave an impassioned speech about how people should not be putting each other down but raising one another up instead. If that’s not authentic, we don’t know what is.
Saying No to Unrealistic Standards
Pugh isn’t one to let superficial things dictate her career. When told during a casting call in Hollywood to lose weight, she declined, saying, “I don’t want to feel like I have to change myself or my image.”
Musically Talented
Not only is Pugh a talented actress, she is also musically inclined too. The actress can play the guitar and the piano. If that’s not enough, she also pens her own songs. In fact, she even uploaded her songs onto her own YouTube Channel, simply named FP. Although she has not uploaded new videos for five years, you can still check out some of her older works here. Apart from her original works, she also did covers of bands, sich as Wonderwall by Oasis. Enjoy!
She’s got the Moves
If you have been following Pugh on her Instagram, you may know that she often shares candid moments on her feed and Instagram stories. You would also have seen her groovy moves. And boy can she move, which isn’t surprising since her mother was a dancer.
Critically Acclaimed
At just 25, Pugh has racked up quite a bit of accolade. She was listed in Forbes Magazine’s annual 30 under 30 list under Entertainment Category. Apart from being nominated for an Oscar in 2020, she was also nominated for a Rising Star Award in 2018 and Best Supporting Actress in 2019 at the BAFTAs for Little Women. She won Best Supporting Actress for her role as Amy March at the Chicago Film Critics Association. Earlier on in her career, she won the British Independent Film Award for Best Performance by an Actress in 2018 for her role in Lady Macbeth. For the same role, she also won at the Dublin International Film Festival.
She is Hilarious
Once again, if you are not following her on Instagram, you are missing out. Scrolling through her feed will make you laugh, especially when she does her signature goofy faces or when she goes into a detailed post about her dream wedding to Leonardo DiCaprio.
Her Comedic Timing is Perfect
For someone that funny, we have yet to see her display any of it in her roles. But do expect a sliver of it to appear in Black Widow, which she co-stars with Scarlett Johansson, David Harbour and Rachel Weisz. She plays Yelena Belova, a fellow Black Widow and “sister” of Natasha Romanoff. Despite being trained as a female assassin, Pugh makes Yelena likeable and displays excellent comedic flair. Do watch out for the scene where she makes fun of the cliché superhero landing.
