Florence Pugh Opens Up About The Role That Most Took Its Toll On Her

Florence PughFlorence Pugh is lifting the lid on the emotional turmoil she felt while making the horror movie Midsommar.Back in 2019, the Oscar nominee appeared as Dani in the Ari Aster film, which centres around a traumatised young woman on the verge of breaking up with her long-time partner while on holiday at a nightmarish commune in Sweden.The British star received widespread acclaim for her performance in Midsommar, with some going as far as saying she deserved awards recognition for her work in the movie, although she’s since made no secret of the toll that playing Dani took on her.Speaking to Louis Theroux on the latest episode of his podcast, Florence explained that when she began work on Midsommar, she’d never been in a “horrible state” like her character, who she said was “constantly on the brink of a panic attack or an emotional breakdown”.Jack Reynor and Florence Pugh in Midsommar“I’d never ever been through anything close to that or knew anyone that had been through that or feels like that,” she explained. “I had never seen that level of grief or mental health in the way that was being asked of me on the page.“So [to get in that mindset], I really put myself through it. At the beginning, I just imagined hearing the news that one of my siblings had died. Then, towards the middle of the shoot it was like, oh no, I actually needed to imagine the coffins. Towards the end of the shoot, I actually was going to my whole family’s funeral.“The thing that I was being required to do was something that I didn’t know how to [do]. It wasn’t just crying. I needed to sound pained. I’d never done anything like that before and I was like, ‘okay, well here’s my opportunity. I need to give this a go’. And I would just basically put myself through hell.”“I don’t do that anymore,” she then insisted, claiming that her work on Midsommar “really fucked me up”.She explained: “I felt like I manipulated myself for sure, but I really used myself [...] when I left on the plane, I finished Midsommar, got on a plane and flew to Boston to shoot Little Women.“I kind of knew where the field [where Midsommar was set] was, outside of the Budapest airport. And I remember looking down at the field and I started weeping because I felt like I’d left Dani there.“My brain was obviously feeling sympathy for myself because I’d abused myself, and really manipulated my own emotions to get a performance. But I also then felt sorry for what I’d done. It was very, very strange and I’ve never ever been worried about my characters from the day that I finish. But she was the one that I felt like I’d left her in that field with the film crew just filming her cry.”Florence Pugh played Dani in the 2019 horror movie MidsommarFlorence added: “I just can’t exhaust myself like that [anymore] because it has a knock-on effect. I think [Midsommar] made me sad for like six months after – and I didn’t know why I was depressed.“I got back after shooting Little Women, which was such a fun experience and obviously a completely different tone from Midsommar, so I think shelved all of [those feelings]. And then when I got home for Christmas, I was so depressed and I was like, ‘oh, I think that’s from Midsommar, and I didn’t deal with it and I probably shouldn’t do that again’.”Last year, Florence appeared on the podcast Reign With Josh Smith, where she once again spoke about the emotionally taxing experience of filming Midsommar.“Protecting myself is something that I’ve had to learn how to do,” she noted. “There have been some roles that I’ve given too much to, and I’ve been broken for a long while afterwards.“I definitely felt like I abused myself [making Midsommar] in a way in the places that I got myself to. The nature of figuring these things out is you need to go, ‘all right, well I can’t do that again cause that was too much’.”She went on to insist that when she looks at her performance in the Ari Aster break-up movie, she still feels “really proud of what I did”, so has no regrets about her involvement.Florence shared the screen with Jack Reynor in the polarising 2019 movie, which also starred Will Poulter, William Jackson Harper and Saltburn’s Archie Madekwe.READ MORE:Florence Pugh Reveals Her 'Different' Take On Midsommar's Shocking EndingFlorence Pugh Reveals This Tear-Jerking Scene In We Live In Time Was Actually Her IdeaFlorence Pugh Calls Out 'Godawful' Keira Knightley Headlines After Love Actually

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