Vogue Australia November: Florence Pugh happy to go with the Flo
In a preview of the new issue, the actor shares her thoughts on the SAG-AFTRA strike and a near relocation to Sydney.
Florence Pugh might be the singular acting talent of her generation: Oscar-nominated at just 24, compared to a young Kate Winslet, effortlessly straddling both the world of big blockbusters (the forthcoming Dune II and Black Widow) and art house fare. But when she was in high school, she was told that she shouldn’t pursue a career in acting.
“I had two teachers that heavily suggested I shouldn’t, ‘cos I was definitely gonna fail to be an actor,” Pugh shared with the November issue of Vogue Australia, on sale November 6. At the time, she was hoping to attend an open audition for the coming of age film The Falling, in which she would eventually star alongside Game of Thrones’ Maisie Williams, and became the movie that kickstarted her career.
“And at this point, I’d been in every play, every school competition, every talent show. The only thing that I was good at this school was the thing I’d just been given this opportunity for.” Pugh’s parents – both creatives, her father is an artist and restauranteur and her mother is a dancer; as a child, the family almost moved to Australia, even scouted out Sydney as a potential new base – encouraged her to attend the audition and the rest is history. “But it is scary, though,” Pugh admitted to the magazine.
The 27-year-old was photographed by Vogue Australia in her native London, where she was also interviewed over pastries after attending a pottery class. Because the interview took place during the SAG-AFTRA strikes – in place at the time the magazine went to print – Pugh couldn’t speak about struck projects, including her recent work in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer or the forthcoming Dune II, in which she stars alongside Zendaya and Timothee Chalamet.
Pugh walked out of the London premiere of Oppenheimer when the strike came into effect in July. “Obviously, we’re all optimistic,” she told Vogue Australia, of the strike, “but it’s been very sad what the take is, of who we are standing up for and what we want. It’s been very frustrating to hear that sometimes the public think, ‘Well don’t they earn enough? Or do they really need another mansion?’”
“It’s not about that,” Pugh declared. “One thing that I’m so aware of is that it’s affecting absolutely everyone that’s even in the slightest way connected to [the industry]. The make-up artists, the costume designers, the drivers, the dry cleaners. It’s not just about writers and actors wanting to be listened to … It’s the same thing with every profession that goes on strike. It’s the belief that ‘we get to keep it all’. And you get to have the scraps that we decide to give you.”
Pugh shared that the period of pause had brought about serious self-reflection, revealing that she has “done a lot of growing this summer”. “And I’ve come out the other end feeling like I want to be more vulnerable and more understanding of what I need,” she said.
“Recently, I’ve definitely wanted to allow that other part of me, of not knowing how I feel, and not being okay, and not feeling strong, to also be a part of my character. ‘Cos otherwise you find that you’ve been strong for years and helping other people for years and never actually requesting the love and care that you’ve been putting out there.”
Vogue Australia’s November issue is on sale November 6.
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