Florence Pugh Says Indie Film World Was "Really Pissed Off" When She Made Black Widow

Florence Pugh believes the independent film community hated her for going mainstream when she made Black Widow.

The Oscar-nominated British actress, 27, who made her name in Hollywood in such indies as Midsommar and Lady Macbeth, starred in 2021's Black Widow, where she played Yelena Belova, Natasha Romanov's (Scarlet Johansson) sister— a career move some people were very critical of. Pugh reprised the role in the Disney+ series Hawkeye.

Speaking to Time, the Little Women star said: “So many people in the indie film world were really p****off at me. They were like, ‘Great, now she’s gone forever.'

“And I’m like, no, I’m working as hard as I used to work. I’ve always done back-to-back movies. It’s just people are watching them now. You just have to be a bit more organised with your schedule.”

After over 10 years in the industry, the Don't Worry Darling actress insisted she can tell from being on set whether or not a movie will succeed and has "definitely" had moments where she felt a film she was working on was falling apart.

Declining to name one particular project, Pugh said: “A whole film set, it’s everybody making a huge effort because they want to be there. And if someone doesn’t want to be there or if someone isn’t pulling their weight, you can feel it. The film feels wrong.”

In the interview, Pugh also explains why she's drawn to playing "confrontational" characters.

She said: “Even if they’re not defined on the page, I always find some way to make them quite confrontational.
“I never see the bad in them — even when they have killed children and burned boyfriends. I’ve always understood them as people that needed to do what they had to do to survive.”

Pugh will next be seen in Oppenheimer, dropping in cinemas on July 20, and Dune: Part Two, out on Nov 2.

— BANG SHOWBIZ

Photo: TPG News/Click Photos

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