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Florence Pugh says she was abusive to herself during the filming of the 2019 horror film Midsommar, directed by Ari Aster
Florence Pugh is currently doing the press rounds for the film A Good Person (read our review HERE), but during an interview on the podcast Off the Menu (as reported by Variety), she took a moment to look back at the experience of working on the 2019 horror film Midsommar (watch it HERE)… and as it turns out, working on that movie wasn’t a very fun time for her. As she put it, she “abused herself” during that production.
In case you need a reminder, Midsommar had the following synopsis: Dani and Christian are a young American couple with a relationship on the brink of falling apart. But after a family tragedy keeps them together, a grieving Dani invites herself to join Christian and his friends on a trip to a once-in-a-lifetime midsummer festival in a remote Swedish village. What begins as a carefree summer holiday in a land of eternal sunlight takes a sinister turn when the insular villagers invite their guests to partake in festivities that render the pastoral paradise increasingly unnerving and viscerally disturbing.
Pugh said, “When I did it, I was so wrapped up in (Dani) and I’ve never had this ever before with any of my characters. I’d never played someone that was in that much pain before, and I would put myself in really shitty situations that maybe other actors don’t need to do but I would just be imagining the worst things. Each day the content would be getting more weird and harder to do. 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.“
She even felt guilty about leaving Dani behind to go work on her next film, Little Women. “I remember looking (out the plane) and feeling immense guilt because I felt like I’d left her in that field in that (emotional) state. It’s so weird. I’ve never had that before… Obviously, that’s probably a psychological thing where I felt immense guilt of what I’d put myself through but I definitely felt like I’d left her there in that field to be abused… almost like I’d created this person and then I just left her there to go and do another movie.“
While Pugh’s star has been rising higher and higher, Midsommar director Ari Aster has been working on his follow-up project Beau Is Afraid with Joaquin Phoenix. That film is set to reach theatres on April 21st. A Good Person is in theatres now.
Are you a fan of Midsommar? What did you think of Pugh’s performance in the film; was it worth the mental torment she put herself through? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.
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