Movies
Florence Pugh says she ‘abused’ her body for ‘Midsommar’
The actress went to great lengths to prepare for her role in the psychological-thriller.
‘Midsommar’ is a chilling psychological-thriller film that focuses on the activities of a cult. The story follows Dani (Florence Pugh), a grieving student who attends a midsummer festival that quickly turns out to not be the idyllic retreat she thought it was.
The movie was released in 2019 and starred Florence Pugh, Björn Andrésen and Will Poulter among others.
Pugh received critical acclaim for her incredible performance, but in a recent interview with the “Off Menu” podcast, the actress revealed that she “abused” her body to get into character.
“When I did it, I was so wrapped up in her and I’ve never had this ever before with any of my characters,” Pugh said. “I’ve never played someone that was in that much pain before, and I would put myself in really shitty situations that maybe other actors don’t need to do but I would just be imagining the worst things.”
Achieving that level of emotional vulnerability
Dani was portrayed as having psychological breakdowns due to the intense emotional manipulation she faced at the hands of the cult.
“Each day the content would be getting more weird and hard to do,” Pugh continued. “I was putting things in my head that were getting worse and more bleak.
“I think by the end I probably, most definitely abused my own self in order to get that performance.”
Leaving Dani behind
After filming on ‘Midsommar’ ended, Pugh began shooting Greta Gerwig’s ‘Little Women’. The abrupt change in movies caused Pugh to feel guilty as Dani caused a lasting impression on the actress.
“I remember looking [out the plane] and feeling immense guilt because I felt like I’d left [Dani] in that field in that [emotional] state,” Pugh explained. “It’s so weird.
“I’ve never had that before… Obviously, that’s probably a psychological thing where I felt immense guilt of what I’d put myself through but I definitely felt like I’d left her there in that field to be abused… almost like I’d created this person and then I just left her there to go and do another movie.”