Florence Pugh Reveals How She ‘Abused My Own Self’ While Making ‘Midsommar’

One of the biggest Oscar snubs in recent memory is Florence Pugh in Midsommar. She should have won for her vulnerable, cathartic performance, but because the Academy only acknowledges horror once a decade and Get Out had already come out, she wasn’t even nominated. I’m still mad.

In an interview on the Off Menu podcast, Pugh revealed what she put herself through while making the Ari Aster film. “Each day the content would be getting more weird and harder to do,” she said. “I was putting things in my head that were getting worse and more bleak. I think by the end I probably, most definitely abused my own self in order to get that performance.”

Pugh continued, “There were so many places that I had to go to. I’d never played someone that was in that much pain before, and I would put myself in really shit situations that maybe other actors don’t need to do, but I would just be imagining the worst things.” She also explained what was going through her mind when she left the Midsommar set to go film Little Women.

“I felt like I’d left her there in that field, in that state, and it was so weird. I’ve never had that before. I’ve always thought all my characters, once I left like, ‘They’ll be fine.’ She can’t fend for herself, almost like I’d created this person, and then I just left her when I had to go do another movie. I created such a sad person, and then felt guilty that I’d created that person and then left her.”

Cheer up, Florence. Your BFF Paddington is there for you:

— Paddington (@paddingtonbear) February 24, 2020

You can listen to Pugh’s episode of the Off Menu podcast below.