The movie Florence Pugh was told not to make because she’d fail: “I’m glad I did it”
This world is full of what ifs, sometimes tragic ones, sometimes scary, sometimes sad, but on the flipside, there’s nothing quite like the proud and relieved reflection of ‘what if I hadn’t?’, like when Florence Pugh must have wondered what if she hadn’t ignored the doubts.
Looking back now, if she hadn’t ignored them, the movie world would be a little duller, for it’s tough to imagine no Midsommar, or Midsommar with some other face nestled amongst the may queen flowers. It’s hard to imagine anyone else capturing Amy March quite as beautifully and movingly as Pugh did in Greta Gerwig’s Little Women, and without her, surely Don’t Worry Darling would have been even more of a disaster than it already was, as it was her knack for a thriller that carried it through.
Still only really in the infancy of her career, Pugh has positioned herself as a modern great. Amongst the powerful alumni of Bafta Rising Star Award nominees, then leading to nominations for actual Baftas, Oscars and beyond, she burst onto the scene with bags of potential and, over the years, has seen that potential be fulfilled, but what if she’d never tried?
“I had two teachers who heavily suggested I shouldn’t, ’cos I was definitely gonna fail to be an actor,” Pugh revealed to Vogue. Born in Oxford, she essentially suffered the downside of posh private education: they don’t tend to like artists.
At her school, where the notable alumni mostly include scientists, biologists, psychologists and other math-minded figures, Pugh stood out. Parents don’t typically fork out £24,300 a year for their child’s education only for them to risk it all on a career as uncertain and, let’s be real, as unlikely as acting where few people actually make it, so the choir of parents and teachers sing their doubts partially as a desperate and protective plea, wanting to protect the youth from rejection. However, that nervous holding back of ambition can end up holding back someone special, and Pugh was certain she was meant for her dreams.
“At this point, I’d been in every play, every school competition, every talent show. The only thing that I was good at at this school was the thing I’d just been given this opportunity for,” she said as opportunity did come knocking. While teachers tried to get her to rethink and refocus her brain back on the books, she was casting it all off for an open casting call for a young girl to play Abbie in The Falling.
This is a story that should serve as the ultimate support for the open casting calls, especially in an industry where it feels like more and more roles are simply being handed to the same few known faces, so Pugh’s success should stand as a reminder that the plucky kid from a small town can be great, as long as they can be found.
Luckily, she ignored her teachers and went down to the casting call, booking the job in her debut feature film and then having to take time away from sixth form to film the movie. “It is scary, though,” she admitted as she went against the advice, but by the time the good reviews were rolling in, specifically for Pugh’s part, the panic paid off.
Deemed “remarkable” by The Irish Times, the young actor was awarded ‘Best British Newcomer’ at the BFI London Film Festival, and everything was set to see her rise, which leads one to wonder, what if she had listened to her detractors and just stayed in school?
