From nipple flashing to fights with directors – how Brit star Florence Pugh became Hollywood’s biggest rebel
HOLLYWOOD didn’t know what had hit it when British actress Florence Pugh took on the movie industry.
The 27-year-old from Oxford appeared on the front cover of Time magazine this week as one of the “Next Generation Leaders” — and she will star in two big-budget blockbusters this year.
Not bad for a woman who, only nine years ago, was working as a waitress in her dad’s cafe, studying for her A levels and singing songs in her bedroom for YouTube.
But Florence is not like most people — especially in Hollywood. She is sassy, outspoken and starting to shake things up.
While most newcomers toe the line by quietly agreeing to directors’ demands, Florence stood her ground from the very start.
Despite heading to Los Angeles as an 18-year-old unknown, she was not willing to give into demands to shed pounds and change her appearance.
She has since delivered public tongue-lashings to critics who have commented on the size of her thighs, her breasts and the 20-year age gap between Florence and her ex-boyfriend Zach Braff, 48.
Having received an Oscar nomination in 2020 for Little Women, proved her action credentials in Marvel’s Black Widow and wowed audiences in the unsettling horror Midsommar, she is now Britain’s most in-demand actress.
But anyone hiring Florence needs to know that she’s in charge.
She said of the call from Marvel: “When I got the job I wanted to know what the regime was, whether it was them or me calling the shots.
“That was a big deal for me. I would rather not be part of something where I was constantly checked on.”
This feisty, no-nonsense spirit is in the Pugh genes.
She was brought up in Oxford, the third of four children, by her restaurant-owning dad Clinton, 64, and her mum Deborah, a dancer.
Clinton has recently been in the news for his vocal campaign against Oxford City Council’s Low Traffic Neighbourhood schemes, which he claims have ruined his businesses.
He kept up a huge banner lambasting the restriction on cars, despite threats of a fine.
Clinton last week revealed that one of his three diners, Cafe Tarifa, had been repossessed as a result of a 25 per cent downturn in trade.
He said: “Someone commented they saw Florence growing up in her father’s restaurant, and ‘she doesn’t take any s**, and nor does her dad’.
“It’s true. As my wife says, ‘the acorn doesn’t fall far from the tree’.”
Florence has had to overcome health issues on her way to the top.
As a child she suffered from respiratory illness tracheomalacia, which led to several spells in hospital.
Her parents moved to Andalusia, in Spain, when she was three in the hope that the warmer weather would reduce the symptoms.
They returned three years later and today the only sign of the condition is what she describes as her “weirdly low voice”.
The illness also gave Florence some of her incredible drive, as she admitted: “I hated being the kid that ‘couldn’t do it’.”
She showed she could perform by using a Yorkshire accent in her nativity play aged six and writing her own songs in her teenage years.
Videos of her singing under the name Flossie Rose on YouTube while playing acoustic guitar have now wracked up millions of views, with a cover of Oasis classic Wonderwall watched 1.6million times.
Florence, who attended the £30,000-a-year St Edward’s School in her home city, recalled: “I did a lot of drama at school. I was that annoying girl with her hand up for everything.”
She had plenty of inspiration from her siblings. Her step sister Arabella Gibbins, 37, is a vocal coach and actress, her brother Toby Sebastian, 31, appeared in Game Of Thrones and her younger sister Rafaela, 19, has also acted.
Florence said: “The family have always been involved in performing from a young age.”
Her big break came aged 17 in British mystery drama The Falling, with Maisie Williams.
A standout performance attracted the attention of studio executives in Los Angeles.
She landed the lead in the pilot for sitcom Studio City, but was told she would have to change “my weight, my look, the shape of my face, the shape of my eyebrows”.
The TV show never received the green light for a full series, which opened up the chance for Florence to star in 2016 movie Lady Macbeth.
Just because she objected to comments about her body size, it did not mean that Florence was afraid to strip off in front of the cameras in that film.
She said: “If you read a script and the nudity makes sense and it’s not gratuitous, then I don’t have a problem with it.”
Although she did admit it was a “gulp moment” when she had to appear naked on set.
In 2018, Florence was nominated for the Bafta Rising Star Award.
Then a year later she filmed alongside Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in wrestling movie Fighting With My Family.
It was her first time back working in Hollywood since her terrible initial experience.
She told Time magazine: “The person I came back to was a female wrestler with muscles and big thighs.
“I quite liked that, because the last time I’d been there I was told I needed to lose weight.
“It was just so not the person I wanted to be.”
In April of 2019 she started seeing Scrubs star Zach, which led to trolls criticising him for dating a woman so much younger than him.
Again, Florence let everyone know that she couldn’t care less about their cruel comments.
She said: “I’m not doing anything to please people.” The couple split up last year but she remained good enough friends with Zach to star in a film he directed, A Good Person, which also featured Morgan Freeman.
SEX SCENES
Zach revealed: “She’s just magnetic. You cannot take your eyes off of her. “
“And it’s not just her beauty and it’s not just her acting ability, it’s that thing, that magic thing that transcends the screen.”
The men who dared to insult Florence’s breast size in the summer of 2020 received an even more strident response.
She knew that when she wore a see-through pink Valentino dress and no bra for a fashion show in Rome that it would get a reaction.
When the online trolls were particularly mean, she asked them: “Why are you so scared of breasts?”
The 5ft 4in star continued: “So many of you wanted to aggressively let me know how disappointed you were by my ‘tiny tts’, or how I should be embarrassed by being so ‘flat chested’.
“I’ve lived in my body for a long time. I’m fully aware of my breast size and am not scared of it.”
And the actress has continued to dress how she likes.
At the recent Met Gala in New York Florence appeared with a shaved head and nose ring.
Directors know that when they hire the British actress they will always receive an outstanding performance.
The Harry Styles movie Don’t Worry Darling was largely panned by critics last year.
But they all praised Florence, who suggested she wasn’t happy about the way director Olivia Wilde focused so much on her being pleasured by Harry’s character in the film.
She said: “When it’s reduced to your sex scenes, or to watch the most famous man in the world go down on someone, it’s not why we do it.”
It’s no wonder that director Christopher Nolan has put Florence alongside Matt Damon and Emily Blunt in next month’s big budget historical drama Oppenheimer, about the father of the atomic bomb.
Or that director Denis Villeneuve wanted her for his Dune sequel, which also features Zendaya and Timothee Chalamet.
She is so big in the United States that Americans think that Florence is one of their own, due to her impeccable accent.
On a recent podcast she revealed: “So many people think I’m American.
“Then, when I do things publicly, like if I present an award or I’m on a stage talking, they’re like, ‘That is the fakest English accent I have ever heard’.’’
Fortunately, her latest production allows Florence to use her normal voice.
At the moment she is filming rom-com We Live In Time, with former Spider-Man star Andrew Garfield, in London.
And her latest relationship is a low profile one that is unlikely to attract the kind of negative comments that plagued her time with Zach.
She is dating Charlie Gooch, 26, a photographer and pal from her days in Oxford.
That, alongside her purchase of a home in London and close family ties in Oxford, means any permanent move to Hollywood is not on the cards.
Her dad is aware how remarkable Florence’s stratospheric acting career has been so far.
He said proudly: “Not everyone’s career goes like Florence’s.
“For most of them it’s feast or famine, but we’ve had such a lot of fun.”
And if Florence keeps being herself, the fun is only just starting.