"When I look for roles, I am looking for incredibly powerful women."
Florence Pugh (born 3 January 1996 in Oxford) is an English actress.
She made her professional acting debut in the mystery film The Falling and had her breakthrough with a leading role in the independent drama Lady Macbeth. Her performance as an unhappily married woman in the latter won her the British Independent Film Award for Best Actress.
She's also known for works such as The Little Drummer Girl and Outlaw King. Pugh had a big year in 2019, playing lead roles in the Professional Wrestling Biopic Fighting with My Family, the horror film Midsommar, and Greta Gerwig's adaptation of Little Women (for which she received her first Oscar nomination). In 2021, she joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Black Widow, playing Natasha Romanoff's successor Yelena Belova.
Her siblings, Arabella Gibbins, Toby Sebastian, and Rafaela Pugh, are also actors.
Filmography
Film
- Lady Macbeth (2016) as Katherine Lester
- Malevolent (2018) as Angela Sayers
- Outlaw King (2018) as Elizabeth de Burgh
- The Commuter (2018) as Gwen
- Fighting with My Family (2019) as Saraya-Jade Bevis / Britani Knight / Paige
- Midsommar (2019) as Dani
- Little Women (2019) as Amy March
- Marvel Cinematic Universe (2021 — present) as Yelena Belova:
- Black Widow (2021)
- Hawkeye (2021)
- Thunderbolts (2024)
- The Wonder (2022) as Elizabeth Wright
- Don't Worry Darling (2022) as Alice
- Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022) as Goldilocks (voice)
- Oppenheimer (2023) as Jean Tatlock
- The Boy and the Heron (2023) as Kiriko (voice; English dub)
- Dune: Part Two (2024) as Princess Irulan
Television
- Marcella (2016) as Cara Thomas
- King Lear (2018) as Cordelia
- The Little Drummer Girl (2018) as Charmian "Charlie" Ross
Tropes
- Awesome, Dear Boy: She was ecstatic to appear nude in Lady Macbeth because it allowed her to let go of her body image insecurities."I loved the fact she was naked all the time. At that point in my life, I had been made to feel shit about what I looked like and that film was perfect. There was no room for me to feel insecure."
- Contralto of Strength: She has a deep voice and gets to kick plenty of butt as a Black Widow.
- Dye Hard: She's naturally blonde but had to dye her hair brown in both Lady Macbeth and Outlaw King, and jet black in Fighting with My Family. Not to mention going pink for her small part in The Commuter. And for the film A Good Person, she went brunette again and cut it off on-screen.
- Dyeing for Your Art: Although she had pro wrestler Tessa Blanchard as a Talent Double in Fighting with My Family, she did learn how to wrestle in preparation for the role.
- Enforced Method Acting: She had less time to rehearse for Little Women than her co-stars because she was still busy with Midsommar. She has said that this helped with how Amy is supposed to be the odd sister out.
- Fake American: She seems to play this more than her own nationality these days, such as Midsommar, Little Women (2019), Don't Worry Darling, A Good Person etc.
- Fake Russian: When playing Yelena, she masks her natural British accent by affecting a Russian one.
- Inelegant Blubbering: Her signature acting choice is an enormous frown usually followed by this trope
. - Ms. Fanservice: She has no qualms about showing off her beauty in films like Lady Macbeth and Oppenheimer.
- Period Piece: Has a habit of appearing in such films, namely: Lady Macbeth (Victorian London), Outlaw King (The High Middle Ages), The Little Drummer Girl (The '70s) and Little Women (The American Civil War).
- Playing Against Type:
- Fighting with My Family is remarkably different from her usual roles in costume dramas, playing a goth pro wrestler.
- Midsommar is a horror film where she plays a meek abuse victim who ends up condemning her boyfriend to ritual sacrifice.
- Star-Making Role: In her home country, Lady Macbeth is her breakout role. In the US, it was a streak of releases that followed with Outlaw King, Fighting with My Family, Midsommar and Little Women that got her noticed. Once Black Widow was released, her popularity blew up even more.
- Throw It In!: Amy's infamous monologue about how marriage is an economic process in Little Women was only thought up on set that day. Meryl Streep felt that audiences needed to understand a woman's powerlessness in that era.
- Vocal Dissonance: Her deep voice contrasts with her round, youthful face. The former is due to tracheomalacia.
