Florence Pugh’s favourite song of all time
Despite being referred to as “Miss Flo” in a recently leaked video which sees her director in the upcoming release Don’t Worry Darling, Olivia Wilde, beg Shia LeBeouf not to leave the production, Florence Pugh is rightly becoming one of the foremost actors of her generation. The film has not been without its sticky moments as the director had to confirm that co-star Harry Styles was not set to earn three times more than Pugh, and then Pugh herself had to reiterate that should not entertain questions about the salacious side of hers and Styles’ working relationship.
With a bubbling film career that looks set to continuously boil down some of the best acting Pugh has delivered, the actor has become an icon of her generation, starring, perhaps most notably, as the fresh-faced teen in Midsommar, But acting isn’t the only thing Pugh truly loves, she’s also an avid music fan.
Considering pugh only landed her first major film role in 2014, with Carol Morley’s The Falling, the star’s rise to the top has been astronomically quick. That trajectory into the stratosphere gathered more pace with roles in Lady Macbeth and the TV series The Little Drummer Girl for the BBC, as Pugh’s success came thick and fast, reaching a peak when she starred as Dani in Ari Aster’s popular folk horror Midsommar in 2019. She can now be found working with directors such as Greta Gerwig and even occupying a supporting role in the Marvel franchise.
But one of her first loves is music. Regularly the actor will take to social media to share some of her favourite songs or answer questions on the tracks that are soundtracking her summer. While there are many strings to Pugh’s musical bow, her style is fairly easy to ascertain as she champions singer-songwriters, British anthems and folk-inspired ditties as her main source of sonic nourishment, having noted Oasis‘ ‘Wonderwall’, Lucy Rose’s ‘Shiver’ and music from The Beta Band as some of her most treasured tracks.
When sitting down with Elle in 2020 on the promotional tour for Greta Gerwig movie Little Women, Pugh picked out ‘the anthem of her life’, and was surefooted when making her selection: “Not the anthem, but definitely a song that kind of welcomes people t my life, would be ‘Southern Sun’ by Boy and Bear. It is one of my favourite songs and has been for a really long time. That and… nope, that’s it.”
The track was released in 2013 and captures the Australian rock band, Boy and Bear at their poppy peak. The song is rich in tone and dripping in meaning, with many fans arguing over the direction of the song’s sentiment. While some picture the innocent moment of falling in love with another person and the dream-like beauty of such crystalline moments never truly sparkling in the same way again, others have suggested that the song is a reference for psychedelic experiences.
Whichever way you cut it, the track is a classic rock tune for the ages. Inspired y the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Fleetwood Mac and Paul Simon, the song is built for timeless listening, and it’s clear that Florence Pugh intends to listen to it for a very long time.
