Florence Pugh says she 'can't do' roles like “Midsommar” again because she feels like she 'abused' herself 'too much'

Acclaim isn't the only thing Florence Pugh was left with after her starring role in Midsommar.

"Protecting myself is something I've had to learn how to do," she said on a recent episode of the Reign with Josh Smith podcast. "Like, there's been some roles, and I've given too much ... and I've been broken for a long time afterwards."

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The star of Greta Gerwig's Little Women then specifically cited 2019 horror film Midsommar as an example. In it, her character, Dani, is grappling with a horrific family tragedy in the beginning — her sister took the lives of their parents and herself — before things get worse, as she accompanies her boyfriend and his friends on a trip to a picturesque town that turns out to be the home of a cult. Shroom hallucinations, explicit sexual content, and several deaths follow.

"Like when I did Midsommar, I definitely felt like I abused myself in the places that I got myself to go to," the British actress said, "which is the nature of figuring these things out is you need to go, 'All right, well, I can't do that again, cause that was too much.'"

Watch her talk about the film at about 14:50 in the interview below.

Still, she's glad to have been in the Ari Aster film, which features a "dazzling glare of June-bright sunlight — a waking nightmare nestled cozily within the clapboard barns and verdant valleys of the Swedish countryside," as writer Leah Greenblatt wrote in Entertainment Weekly's "A-" review of the film.

"I also then look at that performance and I'm really proud of what I did," Pugh said. "And I'm proud of what came out of me. So I don't regret it."

Besides, really throwing herself into a role is part of her process.

"I don't think I'd be able to do this without going all the way and putting myself in all of those characters that I've played. There's always a piece of me and there's always a moment at the end of filming where I, like, protect and defend those characters to the very end, even if they've done god awful things. I think that's only natural when you're in someone for so long."

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Pugh was recognized with several accolades for the film, including nominations for the London Film Circle Award, where she was named Actress of the Year, and the National Society of Film Critics' Awards, where she came in third place for Best Actress.

In 2024, she starred in the blockbuster Dune: Part 2 and the romance We Live in Time, alongside Andrew Garfield. She'll step into the role of Yelena Belova again in the Marvel movie Thunderbolts*, which comes out in May.

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