Years before Little Women . . . it’s ‘Flossie’ Pugh, the Little Girl with Oscars glory in her sights
THE messy pigtails, stubbornly set eyebrows and sulky pout prove that even at four years old, Florence Pugh displayed the sort of determination that has now secured her an Oscar nomination.
Oxford-born Florence, 24, is now so in demand that director Greta Gerwig delayed filming of the new Little Women movie, for which the actress has earned her Academy Award nod, to allow her to take part. ‘ I knew there was no other person who could do it but Florence,’ Gerwig gushed. ‘She has movie star written all over her.’
And the rest of Hollywood agrees. In May, Florence will star opposite Scarlett Johansson and Rachel Weisz in Black Widow, the latest Marvel bl o c kbuster, a nd s he has other high-profile projects in the pipeline.
Her rise to the top may seem dizzyingly fast, as it was only in 2018 that she came to the public’s attention in the BBC version of John le Carré’s Little Drummer Girl. But as family photographs uploaded to her public Facebook page reveal, Florence has always been a consummate performer.
The actress was brought up in a ‘wonderfully noisy and creative’ home with restaurant-owner father Clinton and mother Deborah, a dance teacher, and she attended the £10,000-a-term St Edward’s School
– its alumni include Laurence Olivier. Her three siblings, Toby, Arabella and Rafaela, have all gone into acting too, prompting her to joke: ‘We’re like the Von Trapps, but not quite as pretty or perfect.’
The children used to perform in their father’s restaurants, while as a teenager Florence released cover versions of hit songs on YouTube under the alias Flossie Rose.
She attributes her success partly to her headstrong attitude. ‘I enjoy women who have something to say,’ she says about her Little Women role of Amy Marsh. ‘I’ve always appreciated the slightly cheeky or naughty characters… there’s an inner bratty child in all of us.’