I’m a Pughgilist
Little Women Florence on play fights with her co-star
The pair play sisters in the comingof- age period drama and Florence reckons real- life play fights helped them get into character.
She said: “Saoirse and I would give each other funny looks and that would mean, ‘Let’s fight.’ We’d either be wrestling or messing about.”
The rough-and-tumbles were so convincing, they used it to good effect on screen.
Florence said: “During our fight scene, I was like, ‘Saoirse, just jump on me and hit me in the face.’ And she goes, ‘Okay.’ And then, when she hit me, Saoirse got upset and said, ‘Oh, you’re welling up.’
“But that was so much fun and can only happen when you trust someone and you love them. We really did.”
Irish star Saoirse, 25, plays Jo March, with English actress Florence as Amy, one of her three – and naughtier – sisters.
Florence, 24, says the entire cast – including Emma Watson, Eliza Scanlen and Laura Dern – bonded over latenight meals and snacking sessions.
She said: “We hit it off from the start. We all have pretty much the same sense of humour and could talk about anything with each other. We would bond over these dinner nights and just hang out together – it was like a slumber party. We would cook together and really feel very cosy and comfortable.
“We were constantly stuf f ing ourselves with bowls of ice cream.”
Florence, from Oxford, has been nominated as Best Supporting Actress and is also February’s Vogue magazine cover star. Yet she admits feeling like a newcomer to the industry.
She added: “I feel like I’m at the beginning of everything and it’s all very exciting and new.
“I love the unpredictable side of it all.”
Florence knew all about Little Women from years ago, explaining how her gran would read Louisa May Alcott’s story to her.
She said: “It was one of my favourite novels. What is odd is that my grandmother hated Amy and would keep stopping, saying, ‘ What a wicked girl.’ So that was my initial impression of Amy for the longest time.
“But when I re-read the novel many years later, I really appreciated Amy’s naughty spirit and I love the way she likes to stir things up.
“I remember being a kind of bratty child and there’s a lot of that in Amy.”
While the movie has catapulted her to fame, Florence is set for another role which empowers women later this year – alongside Scarlett Johansson in Marvel blockbuster Black Widow.
For our fight scene, I got Saoirse to jump on me and hit me in the face