Florence Pugh doesn’t seem like a too-serious or intense person offscreen. She’s a joy to behold in her cooking videos, and she won’t take garbage over any freeing of the nipple. The Oscar nominee also keeps a healthy attitude about the circus around her, even when that includes ending up in a movie that stirs up more behind-the-scenes drama than attention devoted to the film itself.
Florence is currently promoting A Good Person, directed by ex-partner Zach Braff, who wrote the lead role with her in mind. It’s a heavy film, given that Miss Flo‘s character becomes addicted to opioids following a tragic car accident. Variety reports upon a Q&A screening from London, where Florence declared, “[R]eading something that is dedicated for you written by someone who knows you so well is a wonderful gift.” Granted, Braff wrote the project during a particularly intense grieving period, not too long after deaths in his family, followed by the Covid-induced demise of friend Nick Cordero.
When quizzed about whether Florence felt odd to have such a dark role written with her in mind, her answer indicated that she was actually flattered. Besides, these complicated roles are right up her alley, and she’s up for the challenge:
“It’s no secret that I only pick very intense roles. This isn’t the first time I’ve been reduced to tears pretty much every single scene that I’ve been in. I like finding the ugliness in humans. I love being raw. I love being given a script where it challenges myself and I have never picked a role unless I’ve been scared of it. And this is someone that knew me, knew my potential and wanted to work with me. I think it would have been strange if he wrote a Nancy Meyers thing for me to be like, ‘So… you’re not going to cry in this movie.’ I’d be like, ‘Oh God!’”
In other words, don’t expect Florence Pugh to pull off a string of romcoms. It also sounds like we won’t see her make a JLaw-style pitstop into raunchy romcom territory, which probably feels like a nice change of pace for Jennifer Lawrence, who also tends to gravitate towards intense parts. However, Florence sounds like she’s completely happy where she’s at, and audiences are satisfied to see her there.
(Via Variety)