Actor Florence Pugh | Breakthrough Brit 2016

Florence’s first professional acting role nearly didn’t happen. She remembers being 17 and her mum convincing her to send in an audition filmed on her phone with half-an-hour left until the casting deadline. The audition was for Carol Morley’s The Falling, and the next day she received a call from the producers. After a summer of follow-up auditions, Florence was cast in the supporting-lead role opposite Maisie Williams. Before that she’d only performed in school plays and sang in her dad’s restaurant, so she recalls the first day on set being equal parts exciting and terrifying.

Her debut performance was hailed by critics and led to her being cast in the lead of a major US pilot Studio City. In it she played a girl who becomes a superstar, and for the shoot her face was put onto the sides of billboards and buses. When they shut Hollywood Boulevard for a scene, spectators were scrambling to get her autograph — for a character that didn’t exist. Florence recently finished shooting her first lead for film in Lady Macbeth, saying “it was incredible to work on a project where everyone on set is there because they’re passionate about the story. That’s what makes this so worthwhile.”

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