Florence Pugh covers the latest issue of British Vogue, all to promote her tearjerker romance We Live in Time. She costars with Andrew Garfield in what is supposed to be a very moving film about two people falling in love and then not living happily ever after. Honestly, I tend to avoid these kinds of films because I find them manipulative and grief-p0rny, but the early critical response is very good for WLIT. Florence enjoyed working on the film and it changed her perspective, although she acknowledges that at 28 years old, she’s still very much a work in progress. Some highlights from Vogue:
On WLIT: “Watching this movie makes me want to be active in my decisions and actually live. I was at the right age for this movie to land. I was going through a lot of weird stuff with relationships last year and I think part of the story is to not be passive, is not to let things wash over you. I want to go and find love and I want to have babies.”
She wants to have babies? “Oh, I’ve always been thinking about starting a family. I’ve wanted to have kids since I was a child myself. I love the idea of a big family. I come from a big family. I love kids. I love hanging out with kids. If ever there’s a dinner party, I go straight to the kids to chat to them. So much easier. I love the honesty. I love how bored they can get. I’ve never stopped knowing that I want to have kids. It’s just figuring out when.”
On beauty standards & body criticism: “It’s so hard… [The internet’s] a very mean place. It’s really painful to read people being nasty about my confidence or nasty about my weight. It never feels good. The one thing I always wanted to achieve was to never sell someone else, something that isn’t the real me.” Has she always been body confident? “I don’t think it’s confidence in hoping people like me. I think it’s just, like, I don’t want to be anyone else.”
She shaved her head for this role: “I’m so glad I get to talk about it now. For any actor taking a role like this, it is completely important that you see her head and we see her shaving it – it was just always a no-brainer. You have the honour of doing something to yourself that is totally in support of the character…. In many religions, hair is the most precious thing on the body – it’s where you store your memories and your dreams and your history. [Shaving] it was really bizarre. My head was so sensitive and so many people were trying to touch it and it was so alive. My body went into a bit of trauma from it. I was cold all the time.”
She still has the same friends she had at 13. “They are the most honest and the most intelligent and the most ridiculous. I take it very seriously that there is potential for me to evolve in ways that maybe might not suit me best. I don’t want to be someone that no one else likes outside of this industry. Having friends that link me to my old life and what I was like as a child is really important, so I can constantly recognise who I’m supposed to be.”
She doesn’t love living in London: “I love being close to my friends and I love being close to the pub, but I don’t think I’m a city girl. When I lived in LA, I would always dream of when I was going to come back. I was desperate to live in London. But now I’m here I don’t think I suit this. Everything’s busy all the time. I definitely suit a bit more countryside. I don’t really hang out in famous circles. I don’t go to special places that I will get papped at. I don’t really have a care for that level of lifestyle.”
On Don’t Worry Darling: “There’s so many times when I’ve been doing press for a movie and I am asked questions about [Don’t Worry Darling], and I always think it’s unfair to take the space away from the movie that I’m talking about. So I’m going to politely move away from that.”
She’s in a relationship now: “I am [in a relationship]. OK, so something that I resonate with is that I believe that if magic is real, then it’s falling in love. And I am someone that loves falling in love. I love looking after people. I love caring for people. I love the feeling of someone being there. I love knowing that someone is thinking about me and someone cares for me in the same way that I’m thinking about caring for them.”
What she doesn’t want: “I don’t want to become a narcissist. I don’t want to become a twat.”
There’s this thing I see in British actors, especially British actors who have lived in America for a time and “come back” after they’ve had success outside of the UK – it’s like they have to reacclimate themselves to the British faux-humility dance and “prove” their authentic Britishness. Florence spent a big chunk of this interview insisting that she has all of the same childhood friends and she’s not one of those Hollywood actors and of course she’s not full of herself or confident or anything other than forever striving to NOT be a “twat.” It’s a bit exhausting. That being said, I do like her and I do think she’s crazy-talented. I just think I would like her more if she cared less about proving her humility in a stratified society built on Tall Poppy Syndrome.
Cover courtesy of British Vogue, additional photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- Florence Pugh arrives on the red carpet of the 96th Oscars® at the Dolby® Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday, March 10, 2024.,Image: 855691558, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: AL / Avalon
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- Florence Pugh bei der Oscar Verleihung 2024 / 96th Annual Academy Awards im Dolby Theatre. Los Angeles, 10.03.2024 *** Florence Pugh at the 2024 96th Annual Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre Los Angeles, 10 03 2024 Foto:xJ.xBlocx/xFuturexImagex oscars_1089,Image: 855775635, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: imago is entitled to issue a simple usage license at the time of provision. Personality and trademark rights as well as copyright laws regarding art-works shown must be observed. Commercial use at your own risk., Model Release: no, Credit line: IMAGO/Jennifer Bloc / Avalon
Two GREAT films with her, both taking place in the Victorian Era:
“The Wonder” and “Lady Macbeth” (which costars Cosmo Jarvis of “Shogun” fame). These were filmed before her American phase, apparently.
Her fashion sense-I’m assuming the cover picture from British Vogue is partially her doing-is interesting? I’m sixty years old and was raised in the Midwest/South, so I am absolutely uptight about displaying cleavage. She has no qualms about that, so the feminist side of me is “way to go!”, while the pearl clutching is in the background, but I’m working on that…
She seems pretentious.
No, that’s not pretension. That is innate confidence in who she is.
Where’d you get pretentiousness from? She sounds humble and self-reflective. Wonder if you’d say the same if those words came out of a man’s mouth. I bet not! Misogyny at its finest.
Take a cue from Kamala “Not every woman is aspiring to be humble” ;-D
I don’t think it’s about promoting faux humility, but talking about the how stupid and small your world can get if your ultra famous. I mean, I hope she spends more time then the average person trying to hold onto things that were meaningful before the celebrity. I heard an interview with billie eilish talking about how you can be rolling along in your life (as a celeb) and realize that the only people who talk to you are people you pay, and it’s insanely lonely. I think she comes across as thoughtful, plus she is such a powerhouse of an actor, one of the goats.