Florence Pugh rules out roles like ‘Midsommar’ after feeling like she ‘abused’ herself

Florence Pugh wowed audiences with her performance in the hit horror film Midsommar.

Directed by Ari Aster, the film tells the story of a grieving woman who joins her boyfriend and his friends on a trip to a rural Swedish commune, only to find herself ensnared in a sinister and bizarre cult ritual.

During a recent appearance on the Reign with Josh Smith podcast (via People), Pugh shared the emotional toll the role took on her and admitted she “most definitely abused” herself to bring the character to life.

Pugh said, “There have been some roles where I’ve given too much and I’ve been broken for a long while afterwards. Like when I did ‘Midsommar,’ I definitely felt like I abused myself in the places that I got myself to go.”

While she doesn’t regret taking on the role, she admitted it’s not something she would want to do again.

She added, “The nature of figuring these things out is you need to go, ‘Alright, well, I can’t do that again because that was too much,’ But then I look at that performance and I’m really proud of what I did, and I’m proud of what came out of me.”

“I don’t regret it. But, yeah, there’s definitely things that you have to respect about yourself.”

Any hardships Florence Pugh endured during the making of Midsommar were entirely self-imposed. She has only positive things to say about director Ari Aster.

In a separate interview with The New York Times last year, she described him as “peculiar in a mad genius kind of a way” and called him “a stand-up comedian at heart.”

She added, “Once you laugh at one thing, he will try and make you laugh at all the other things. He’ll keep going and everybody will be crying in fits of laughter.”

Midsommar cast also includes William Jackson Harper, Vilhelm Blomgren, Ellora Torchia, Archie Madekwe, and Will Poulter.

Midsommar is currently available to stream on Max.

Pugh is next set to appear in Thunderbolts, an upcoming Marvel superhero film. 

The movie will mark the 36th entry in the MCU and also features Sebastian Stan, David Harbour, Wyatt Russell, Olga Kurylenko, Lewis Pullman, Geraldine Viswanathan, and Chris Bauer in lead roles.