Florence Pugh Didn't Plan Any Of This — She Just Kept Saying Yes To The Right Weird Roles

She Thought She Was Auditioning For Actual Shakespeare — She Wasn't, And It Didn't Matter

Pugh got an email from a casting director asking her to read for a project called Lady Macbeth with an audition scheduled for the very next day, and she panicked thinking she'd have to cram Shakespeare overnight. It turned out to be an adaptation of a 19th-century Russian novella instead, but the panic paid off: she landed the lead and was on screen for roughly 90% of the finished film, in what's now widely regarded as her breakthrough role.

She Said Yes To Midsommar Over A 4AM Skype Call While Filming Something Else Entirely

Pugh has said she was in the middle of filming the BBC's The Little Drummer Girl when Ari Aster's script came in, and the two ended up hashing it out over an exhausted, middle-of-the-night video call after she'd just wrapped a night shoot. She's said she wasn't necessarily drawn to horror as a genre — she was drawn to Aster and that specific, deeply unsettling script, and it turned into one of the most talked-about performances of 2019.

Amy March Finally Got Her Redemption Arc — And It Came With An Oscar Nomination Attached

Greta Gerwig's Little Women reimagined Amy March as something more than the whiny little sister trope, and Pugh leaned all the way into both her vanity and her genuine growth. The performance landed her first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, and she'd later call the directing snub for Gerwig "a big blow" while still celebrating what the film had done for the character.

Two Other Actresses Almost Got There First — Florence Pugh Beat Them Both To Yelena

Before Pugh ever put on the Red Room jumpsuit, Marvel and director Cate Shortland reportedly had Emma Watson as the front-runner for Yelena Belova, and Deadline later reported the role was actually offered to Saoirse Ronan first, who passed because she said Marvel "has not been her cup of tea." Marvel had been eyeing Pugh since late 2018, but it was her physically demanding, charismatic performance as wrestler Paige in Fighting With My Family that reportedly sealed the deal.

Denis Villeneuve Handed Her A Crown — And A Little Women Reunion She Didn't See Coming

Pugh officially joined Dune: Part Two as Princess Irulan Corrino in early 2022, just two years after her Little Women Oscar nod, putting her back opposite Timothée Chalamet for the first time since they played Amy and Laurie. In the books Irulan mostly exists through written excerpts, so casting an actress of Pugh's profile signaled early that Villeneuve had bigger plans for her — plans that reportedly extend into a potential third Dune film adapting Dune Messiah, where Irulan's role grows dramatically.

Yelena Just Became A New Avenger — And Marvel Is Promising She's Not Done Yet

Thunderbolts* ended with Pugh's Yelena stepping up as co-leader of the newly branded New Avengers, and Marvel boss Kevin Feige has since teased that fans should "wait until Avengers: Doomsday" because "Yelena plays a big part in that." Pugh herself has said what she wants most for the character going forward is simple: "I hope that she's happy now... I hope that we get to see some of her light and her charm and her color again." From a one-day Shakespeare scare to leading Avengers into a multiversal showdown — not bad for a girl from Oxford.