Florence Pugh Quotes
Actress
I think there's always some good reason to try and modernize most period things, because at the end of the day, they may have, I suppose, used a different language or a different etiquette, but ultimately, these are still people that loved and breathed and lived and ate and weed and pooed just like we do now.
We tend to kind of write women out of history.
If I can make my mark just a little bit, then great.
I wanted to go to drama school, but when I got the part in 'Falling,' I got an agent, so it seemed a good idea to work. I always did a lot of singing and dancing, so I am glad it worked out that way. I would like to study stage acting at some point, though.
There's a reason why there's a problem with bodies, and it's because you never actually get to see any normal versions of them.
If you look at it, the corset is a very beautiful item, but when I put one on, I realized how little you could actually move. And I'm a very physical person: I talk with my hands. And I felt how the clothes took that away from me. And that was the idea, I think. It was a way of limiting women.
I'm a bit of a gypsy. I live everywhere; I live out of a bag.
We're learning things every decade we grow through, and ultimately, you do end up with a different way of looking at things.
Why shouldn't there be more epic, brilliant female characters onscreen?
The Kate Winslet thing has been a shocker. I was like, that is the most ridiculous claim. Amazing, obviously. She's been my idol since I re-enacted 'Titanic' and fell in love with Leo. And it's a privilege to be called the next anything. But I suppose to be the next you is all you can do.
For me, it's always been so obvious that the less we can edit our lives and more we show how normal we all are, the better.
I've tried not to get too bogged down by what people want you to be.
'The Silence of the Lambs' is my favourite book, favourite film.
I think it's so interesting which ways your career can go. I would have been a completely different actor doing a completely different story, and I would have missed 'Lady Macbeth.'
I think you're always attracted by characters that are a little bit like you, or at least the worst parts of you that you can finally accept and say, 'All right, at least I know that now!'
What's important is to listen before you react.
There's always going to be pressure, and there's always going to be an area where you disappoint. As a storyteller, you have to understand that.
'The Falling' was a big, flashy, bizarre experience. I kept on saying at the time it was a fluke because I did the audition, and I didn't think anything would come of it.
Wearing a corset is extremely uncomfortable.
I have been enormously lucky. My first role was in a great film by a woman director.
I love watching faces as they grow up. It's the difference between so many strong British actresses compared to what America does to women. I like a face that hasn't been tampered with.
It's always shocking when you see a modern woman in a period story line. It doesn't make sense.
The women I'm attracted to playing I hope will mean something to someone.
Sometimes in the real world, there is fire between people.
I am learning on every job I do. There is something new every time.
I grew up in a very loud and dramatic household, and we loved being in the spotlight.
I know that my way of tackling a character is very different.
I have learned how to wrestle. You end up battered and blue - but so happy.
I remember being about six years old, for the first day of school, and sitting in the back of a Chrysler, pretending to cry while listening to Tracy Chapman.
During the Me Too breakthrough, I was hanging out with Emma Thompson and Emily Watson - two people I've looked up to my entire life. Talking to those women was so empowering.
The one thing that I always try and take with me, if there's, like, a remake, or you're doing something again, is that every generation has a new story to tell.
Something that I've always been really keen on representing is some honesty with the way that we view ourselves. That's something I've always appreciated watching actors that I've looked up to, is when they look like you and me, or they have a funny elbow, or they have, you know, a hairy face.
I can't remember a Friday when I was younger when I wasn't eating a pizza, flirting with the barman.
That, for me, actually is the most important thing about doing a period film is trying to make these people as lovable as they are back then.
I grew up in a very loud family where you had to fight to get your voice heard, in a good way.
You are hugely responsible for people following you. You need to work out why you are posting, what the message is, and what you are doing to these people.
In 'Fighting With My Family,' there's a scene where I have to wrestle; I have to do the famous fight between Paige and AJ Lee. We actually did perform it in front of all those thousands of people. And just beforehand, we had a little dress rehearsal, and there were all these famous wrestlers going around and watching as well. Terrifying.
If you ever want to be interrogated, get Michael Shannon to do it. He's an amazing man. I loved working with him.
The whole wrestling art, it's a whole form, is performance, and that's what makes it so exciting to do.
Every time 'Lady Macbeth' and everyone involved in the film gets nominated, it's amazing.
Playing Paige, I felt I had to train to wrestle.
I don't want to feel like I have to change myself or my image.
I think it's good to not edit your life too much, or you give people different standards.
As beautiful as cinema is, it's a massive part of the problem of why we look at ourselves in the way we do.
In order for us to appreciate this world, we have to be a bit more honest, and I hope I do that.
I like a role where some of the character's motivations are confusing or at least interesting.
What we don't realise when we watch a normal film is how many times someone has run in just before a shot quickly to wipe away that sweaty moustache. You never see a normal spot, a bag under the eye or an unplucked eyebrow, because that's not how Hollywood works.
My characters do have some fantastic taste in men.
What I've noticed about Hollywood is, if you go out there shouting about who you are, they will love you for it. But if you go out not knowing what it is that you're representing, and you are just a canvas, they will make you into the thing they need you to be.
I was acting with all my childhood heroes: Meryl Streep, Saoirse Ronan, all of those amazing women.
Why aren't there these epic roles for women, for whatever age you are?
Feisty women are my calling!
'Lady Macbeth' is a great opportunity for me to prove that maybe the outcome of 'The Falling' was not necessarily a fluke.
My dad still collects newspaper clippings about me.
I really take my hat off to anybody that steps in the ring because it's so hard - you're competing against your friends, and you're working in front of an audience who tells you exactly what they're thinking.
I can definitely hold my hands up and say wrestling wasn't something that I grew up watching.
I love all of Kate Winslet's characters. And Natalie Portman. If I can have a smidgen of what they've done, that would be awesome.
I hope to create characters that people want to watch - and they either want to be or are, or it's something that they recognize.
There was one moment when I was in L.A., and he was teaching me a move. I just looked at him, thinking, 'Oh my God, I'm being taught to wrestle by Dwayne Johnson. What the hell?'
If people are noticing the hard work I'm doing, then that's a wonderful thing.
Someone asked if I wanted to be the first female Bond, and I was saying that I don't think we necessarily need that whole conversation.
I've been told to be skinny before - it's already happened, but it's up to you to either listen or say no. I'm not listening.
I do like a bit of danger. Guns, cars, running, bullets. I'm up for it.
I used to reenact 'Titanic' all the time.
For me, I really appreciate seeing real bodies on screen, that variation, not the same frames we saw for the majority of our upbringing, making us feel like we have to look that way.
I think everyone's always interested in playing a spy, right? That's something we grow up admiring, which is so strange, but it's just a very clever and quick world that we all want to be a part of.
The fact that I've been nominated for a BAFTA is insane.
I found out I got 'The Little Drummer Girl' and my BAFTA nomination in quick succession, and I just didn't expect it to be like that. I thought there would be a lot more time in between. It's been an overwhelming experience.
Girls have that wonderful thing where they try to throw each other off, not wanting to appear too eager.
Throughout my life, I've been that annoying kid on every stage at school, in every talent contest.
As an actor, it's very interesting to make the audience love you while you are doing horrendous things.
I played Mary at the age of seven in my first nativity play, and I loved it - there is something so fascinating about embodying someone else.
Do we need to have a female Bond? Couldn't we just make something new?
I got a really good insight into the world of wrestling.
I always hate it when I see the wrong person in massive roles, so for me, my biggest fear would be accepting a role I thought I wouldn't find the rhythm of.
Everybody's story of getting into the industry is just as difficult as the next person. Whether you come from money or no money, it's not easy... you have to offer yourself; you can't expect someone to get you.
What audiences love with series is that they can invest in characters for such a long period of time, and it's the same for actors. You can truly tell your story; then it's done.
I wrestled at the Staples Centre at 'Monday Night Raw' when I was 21 years old.
When I look for roles, I am looking for incredibly powerful women.
With 'Lady Macbeth,' I had two other things offered to me, and they would have also been very fun, but you just have to figure that out. And then you do it.
I love Le Carre's writing.
When you're given a platform, and you're allowed to perform, and someone's there to heighten you as opposed to dampen you, that's a nice feeling.
The biggest thing about 'Lady Macbeth' is the fact that people are so surprised that this woman is so amazing, and really, it shouldn't be so amazing that this incredible character is on our screens.
I want women on-screen that we all either want to be, or we know, or we recognize.