Two faces OF THE fame game
Florence Pugh was fast tracked to stardom from her private school... won dream roles... and is nominated – deservedly – for an Oscar at just 24
THEY represent two of Britain’s best hopes of bagging an Oscar, entrancing audiences and critics alike with their performances as spoilt Amy March in Little Women, and slavery abolitionist Harriet Tubman in Harriet. But though they share exceptional talent, Florence Pugh, 24, and Cynthia Erivo, 33, have walked very different paths to stardom. While Florence found fame after talent scouts came to her private school, Cynthia — raised by her single mother in South London — had to cross the Atlantic to find roles that let her stellar talent flourish. Not only that, but her Oscar nomination has highlighted the fact she’s been ignored by the Baftas — her own country’s most prestigious awards. In stark contrast, Florence Pugh is up for a Bafta for Best Supporting Actress. Here, we tell the very different back stories of the Oscar hopefuls.
AS PROUD parental moments go, few could trump the one restaurateur Clinton Pugh is enjoying right now.
His exciting news arrived courtesy of a FaceTime call from daughter Florence at around 10am on Monday.
Ringing her parents back home in Oxfordshire from los Angeles in the middle of the night, Florence had just learned she’d been nominated for an Oscar.
‘ “Daddy, Daddy, Daddy,” she said, and I could see her lovely, big face smiling,’ says Clinton. Then infuriatingly, his 24-year-old daughter’s big announcement was delayed because his phone ran out of battery.
‘I had to charge it and as soon as I did, it was inundated with messages. It ran out again before she could call back,’ he says.
When Florence — up for best Supporting Actress for her role as Amy in little Women — finally got through, Clinton says her mum Deborah ‘screamed and screamed’.
Clinton beams. ‘I’m very happy that she’s managed to shine that brightly.’
Soon afterwards, the rest of the world witnessed Florence’s delight when she posted a euphoric picture of herself on Instagram receiving the Oscars call while in bed.
To be nominated alongside A-listers such as Scarlett Johansson and Margot Robbie is a phenomenal achievement for this relative newcomer, the privately educated daughter of a restaurant owner and a dance instructor.
As Clinton puts it: ‘Not many of us have relatives who have been Oscar-nominated.’
Speaking exclusively to the Mail from one of a string of restaurants he owns in Oxford, he said: ‘Florence is one in a billion. You don’t come across Florences very often.’
PRESUMABLY also excited about her nomination is boyfriend Zach braff — best known for his role in the hit TV comedy-drama Scrubs.
Florence has never commented on her relationship with braff, who, at 44, is 20 years her senior. The age gap might be enough to have many dads kicking up an Oscarsized stink, but Clinton, 61, insists he is not bothered.
‘I haven’t got a problem with the age. She’s very mature,’ he says, adding that he has met braff ‘quite a few times. He’s a lovely guy.’
Florence is the third of her siblings to go into acting — elder brother Toby Sebastian, 27, is best known as Trystane Martell in Game Of Thrones, while big sister Arabella Gibbins, 34, has appeared on stage. Her youngest sister Rafaela, 16, hopes to follow them into the industry.
Florence was plucked as a sixthformer from £ 30,000- a- year St edward’s school in Oxford to play pregnant schoolgirl Abbie in Carol Morley’s thriller The Falling.
She went on to appear as sexually obsessed Katherine in the 2016 film lady Macbeth, and starred alongside Anthony Hopkins in a stage adaptation of King lear.
She took the lead role of Charlie in bbC thriller The little Drummer Girl before starring in the horror film, Midsommar.
She is currently in los Angeles promoting black Widow, a Marvel film in which she co- stars with Scarlett Johansson. Much has been made of Florence’s privileged upbringing — but don’t tell her dad that she’s a rich girl whose success was handed to her on a plate.
‘everyone assumes she’s posh and never gives anyone credit for working hard,’ he says.’
He also revealed that while Florence may have grown up in a £1.2 million home, her ancestors were distinctly working-class.
Her maternal grandfather, George, worked at Grimsby docks and her maternal grandmother, Pat, was an office clerk. Clinton’s mother, meanwhile, was raised in london’s east end.
Clinton says he has applied solid working-class principles to creating his own very close family.
but Florence did not have an easy early childhood. As a toddler she developed tracheomalacia, an illness that caused collapsed airways. So when she was three, her family moved to Andalusia in
Spain, hoping that the warmer weather would help her condition. Florence says she can remember every day of the three years they spent there — ‘in and out of the sea naked, cycling down the road in my knickers’.
Her first foray into acting came at six, when she suggested playing a ‘ northern Mary’ in her school Nativity play. ‘I remember hobbling onto the stage, going “Ooh, me varicose veins!” and everyone p***ing themselves,’ she says. ‘It was the first time I knew the power of being on stage. I remember thinking: “Oh God, they’re listening to everything I say and I have complete control.” I still feel that now.’
When she was about 12, brother Toby began acting in earnest: ‘I remember watching him for years so . . . I kind of knew the harsh reality of how things worked,’ she says.
Now, presumably, she is providing that same support for Rafaela, who is studying for her GCSes.
Rafaela responded to her sister’s Instagram post with an endearing: ‘Just came out of a chemistry exam and this has most certainly lightened the mood!!!’