The horrifying audition that traumatised Florence Pugh: “It was unacceptable treatment”
It’s hard to find new ways to describe Florence Pugh. She has been around for long enough to be an established star, yet she still feels like one of the freshest and most exciting talents working in Hollywood today.
Whether she’s helming a major franchise instalment or flexing her emotional muscles in a small drama, she is utterly captivating, and most impressively, you get the feeling that the best is yet to come.
It all began for Pugh with a little-remembered film called The Falling. Released in 2014, the then-teenager starred alongside Maisie Williams as two friends studying at an all-girls’ school in 1960s England. The film premiered at the BFI London Film Festival, and Pugh was nominated for the ‘Best Newcomer’ prize for her impressive debut. Not bad for a job she took on a fluke.
The Falling was directed by Carol Morley, who had risen to prominence with the film Dreams of a Life a few years earlier, and her sophomore release was her first time working primarily with young actors – Morley took extreme care when working with her teenage cast, and as she revealed many years later, that attitude did not end when filming wrapped.
As she explained to Vogue in 2023, Morley (who is 30 years older than Pugh) became genuine friends with the future Black Widow star during the making of The Falling – she took on something of a maternal role, helping to guide her young charge through the murky world of show business.
Her wisdom became particularly vital to Pugh when she made the move to Hollywood. A few years into her career, Pugh found herself auditioning for a pilot for a TV show called Studio City. She suffered horrendous body shaming and bullying while working on the show, but had a valuable ally in her corner in the form of her old boss.
“I didn’t want to take away her experience or minimise it,” Morley remembered. “I just kept reinforcing the fact that it didn’t have to be that way… That it was unacceptable treatment, I didn’t know the circumstances, but I knew it had traumatised her – for me, it was about making sure that she understood that it wasn’t the whole picture.”
Morley’s words clearly had the desired effect. Studio City, which saw Pugh playing an aspiring singer-songwriter, was not picked up by a broadcaster. Initially devastated, the star returned to the UK to rethink her strategy.
She eventually realised that, if leading a major TV show meant putting herself in uncomfortable situations, then she wasn’t going to do it – this epiphany led to her smaller pursuits, more thoughtful projects… Over the next few years, she established herself as one of the most talented young actors on the scene, laying the groundwork for all of her future success.
There are countless tales of young performers (especially women and girls) being chewed up and spat out by the ruthless Hollywood ecosystem, and while Pugh should get credit for having the willpower to fight for her dream, it’s clear that, without Morley by her side, she wouldn’t have gotten as far as she did.
