FLORENCE CALLING

Actress Florence Pugh smashes Shakespeare (and wrestling).

MY FIRST ROLE WAS AS MARY IN MY PRIMARY-SCHOOL NATIVITY. I always felt comfortable performing. It was my thing – to be loud, noisy and on stage.

LADY MACBETH,

WITH EVERYBODY KNEW THEY WERE IN FOR SOMETHING SPECIAL.

The budget was tiny, meaning no-one was doing it for a massive pay cheque but because they felt something was powerful in the script. WHEN I’M CHOOSING A ROLE, THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS THE CHARACTER I’M PLAYING. She has to impact people, she has to have something to say. Female actors are fed up with fluffy roles without context. In Fighting With My Family [out later this year], I play an aspiring female wrestler from a small wrestling family in Norwich [England] who becomes a superstar. I had an amazing experience learning how to wrestle. And I recently finished King Lear with Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson. I just sat in the rehearsal room for two weeks and kept my eyes open, watching every single person do their thing.

EMMA THOMPSON IS SUCH A POWERFUL WOMAN.

She gave me books about amazing women who have been shunned over time. It’s heartbreaking to hear stories of scientists having their own ideas sent back to them 10 years later by a man, and they’re suddenly [considered] groundbreaking. Emma is my star. I often think, “How is this my job – hanging out with the coolest woman ever?”