Performing a party trick with a stick, Florence the flexible
SHE’S one of the brightest rising stars in the film industry and has an Oscar nomination to her name.
And now Florence Pugh has revealed that she has another impressive string to her bow – being able to contort her body to perform party tricks.
The star, 27, who is now one of Hollywood’s most sought-after actresses, showed off her ‘one-grip stick trick’ as she wore a black leotard and leg-warmers.
Ms Pugh, who is 5ft 3in, proved that she was certainly more flexible than most as she held on to the stick and moved her body through it without letting go.
‘This is my after-party trick,’ she said as she performed her routine in a video for Vanity Fair magazine. ‘And I never let go once.’
She added: ‘Doesn’t really have a name, but it’s if you have got a broom and you’re bored, have some fun. Grab said stick and hold it, I’d say, like this far apart. You don’t want to do it too short because you can’t step through and you don’t want it too wide because then you can’t push it through your legs.
‘The whole idea is that you’re keeping hold of the stick the entire time.’
Ms Pugh, who has recently starred in the films The Wonder and Don’t Worry Darling, took viewers through her routine.
She said: ‘You’re going to step through, bring it over your head like that and then you’re going to take this end or this end, if you’re left-handed, and you’re going to put it through, around the back, and then you are going to step out. Tada!’ Ms Pugh said she first saw the trick on a contortionist show and decided to learn how to do it herself.
‘You have to do it with your palms facing up in order for your shoulder blades to click into place,’ she said. ‘It’s a good party trick [and] afterwards to be like, “Give it a go”. Because then you just see people nearly break their shoulders and stuff.’
The actress said that the last time she performed the trick she used a broom and ended up ‘pushing my skirt up over my head’ and ‘mooned everyone’.
Ms Pugh is set for a year in the spotlight thanks to her roles in the Dune sequel and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer. She admitted she is not afraid to present an imperfect version of herself to fans and prefers to show her cellulite so she can control her own image. She told the magazine: ‘There’s no pretending with me... When I put on make-up and step in a wonderful dress, I give credit to the people that made me look like that. I’ve always thought that was a way better way to do it. Just be honest and open – then no one has to call you out for anything.’
Ms Pugh rose to prominence after roles in independent film Lady Macbeth and TV shows Marcella and The Little Drummer Girl. In 2019 she found fame after she starred in Little Women, which earned her an Oscar nomination.