Florence Pugh

About

Florence Pugh is a young cheese with an old soul, still fresh on the board but already carrying the kind of depth most wheels take years to find. Lady Macbeth is where to begin. Katherine starts the film bored in a big cold house, and Pugh lets that boredom curdle slowly into something frightening, barely raising her voice. Midsommar gave her a crying scene that goes on far longer than comfort allows, and she commits to every second, raw and completely unvain. Little Women handed her Amy, the sister audiences are trained to resent, and she made her the most practical person in the house. Suddenly the brat had a point. Pugh throws herself at a scene like it might be taken away, and she never minds looking unflattering if the moment calls for it. The Wonder and Oppenheimer both show her ability to command quiet power. There is a salty, crumbly edge to her work that keeps it from ever going soft. She is still maturing, and that is the exciting part.