The scene Florence Pugh would never shoot again: “I can hope at least”
In a short space of time, Florence Pugh became one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, ascending from British indie films to Oscar-winning blockbusters. From the very beginning, she proved to be an unavoidable new talent, impressing critics with her performance in The Falling, directed by Carol Morley.
The movie saw her play a sexually liberated teenager who becomes the fixation of her peers, including Maisie Williams’ Lydia. However, soon, she begins to suffer from fainting spells, which affects the whole school. Pugh’s character proved vital to the narrative, and her performance was perfect.
Two years later, she landed her first major leading role in Lady Macbeth, an underrated dark period drama in which she plays a woman who embarks on an affair after marrying a much older man. Sex, violence, and betrayal all come together to form a shocking portrait of Victorian England’s oppressive attitudes towards women, with Pugh’s performance yet again leaving audiences deeply impressed.
Pugh’s career quickly progressed, with the actor appearing in movies like Fighting With My Family, Malevolent, and Outlaw King. Yet, she broke through into the mainstream with a role in the folk horror movie Midsommar, directed by Ari Aster. It was the filmmaker’s second feature following the success of Hereditary, with Midsommar being highly anticipated. It was well-praised, and at the centre was Pugh, whose character, Dani, goes through a great emotional journey following the loss of her family.
However, while attending a midsummer festival in Sweden, she gets swept up in the cult, who crown her the May Queen. She finds a new sense of family here and rejects her boyfriend, Christian. The movie, which was released in 2019, exposed Pugh to a much larger audience than ever before, and several festivals nominated her for her performance.
Emotional and cathartic, Dani’s transformation is a controversial one, but as she cries and the other women join in during one pivotal scene, a sense of release is depicted that is so intense and vulnerable. Pugh had to tap into her deepest self to release the most gritty and primal screams, but with the help of the other women who joined in with her cries, she felt a sense of accomplishment.
“I knew I would never be so open and so raw and so exhausted like I was that day ever again. I can hope at least,” she wrote on Instagram.
“I remember the first take being so long, much longer than is displayed in the film that you all watched,” she added. “When Ari said cut, we all clung on to each other’s arms and dug our nails into each other’s palms and wept. Sobbed. Heaved. I remember it being really hard to stop.”
She added: “On this film, in this scene, I found a true sisterhood,” before revealing that it was hard to simply snap out of the moment once the camera had finished rolling. “We all looked at each other before we started rolling and knew it would be hard. And awkward. And strange. And unnatural. We knew it wouldn’t be pleasurable.”
“But by the end we would roll in each other’s laps and cry and allow our bodies to keep heaving. That’s the funny thing about filming, you get it all ready to shoot and then someone says cut and sometimes (and beautifully) your body doesn’t understand ‘cut!’ And just keeps feeling.”
While it was a rewarding moment, it’s not something Pugh is desperate to do again. Still, the scene is one of the movie’s most memorable scenes and by putting herself in a vulnerable and awkward position, she was able to achieve something deeply moving.
