Rising Stars: Florence Pugh

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Ever since watching Lady Macbeth last year I have been a huge fan of Florence Pugh. Along with Eliza Scanlen she is, for me, the most exciting and talented young actress out there - and how wonderful that they will share the screen very soon in Little Women.

Florence was born in 1996. She grew up in Oxford in a creative family, one of four children. Her dad owns a handful of restaurants in the city, her mother was a dancer and her older brother, Toby Sebastian, who is also an actor played the Dornish prince on Game of Thrones.

Her first acting job in a feature film was in The Falling, a gig she got off her first ever professional audition. In it she played a free spirited, promiscuous teenager. The film is unfortunately unwatchable after she exits it in the first 30 minutes, proving that she has enough charisma to carry a film on her own and that's a very rare trait.

She then went on to star in Lady Macbeth, while she was barely 20 years old. She has some very daring scenes there, appearing naked in only her second feature film - “I swore I would never go back [to LA] until I knew what it was I was representing. After Lady Macbeth, I was applauded for having normal bum cheeks, so I was like, ‘OK, this is my shout. I’m obviously this and this is all I’m going to be. I don’t want to feel like I have to change myself or my image. I was lucky to have the upbringing I did and the knowledge that this [pressure to look a certain way] is nonsense.” (x). I think it is a fantastic we have a beautiful, lovely young woman who loves the way she looks and doesn't bend to Hollywood's pressure to meet their impossible standards and turn her looks artificial, fake, and frankly unappealing.

Pugh was a revelation in the role and what I love even more is that she fiercely defended her character  - During a Q&A earlier this year, someone in the audience shouted out: “She’s a monster!” But Pugh is team Katherine all the way: “I’m completely in love with her. Everybody looks at me funnily when I say that and thinks I’m going to kill them. But I won’t. I’m not like that. I don’t agree with what Katherine did, but I don’t agree with the situation she was forced to be in. I will be her defender to the end.” (x)

It's incredible for such a young actress to deliver such powerful work time and time again. She has this thing, this spark, this incredible charisma that makes her so amazing to watch. She is memorable even in a small roles in otherwise forgettable movies, like The Commuter. And even in a mediocre film like Outlaw King it was Pugh's acting that was a true highlight. Not the battles, not the production design, simply her. The mixture of sweetness and innocence but at the same time fierceness and unbreakable dignity she depicted made that movie worth seeing.

She can also be seen in Netflix's Malevolent, where she plays a young girl cursed with the same gift her mother had - seeing ghosts. The horror is low budget and not groundbreaking in any way, but yet again Florence makes you enjoy watching it and you immediately feel for her character. Pugh also led a miniseries Little Drummer Girl, where she held her own against much more experienced Alexander Skarsgard and even Michael Shannon.

Recently she stared in biopic Fighting with my Family, which is so far one of the best movies of the year. In it she played the part of Paige, WWE wrestler. Yet again Pugh is so likable and easy to root for while making her character both profoundly human and very impressive in her ambition.

This week we will see Florence in my anticipated movie of the year, Misdommar. The film was seen by critics already and Pugh's performance got universal acclaim, some even comparing her to Toni Collette's astonishing work in last year's Hereditary.

Then she enters the Oscar season in Little Women. And the future is very bright - she will also star in Black Widow solo, currently filming in Budapest. And who knows, maybe she is our next Black Widow in MCU? Whatever she does next, I will definitely eagerly follow her career.