8 Florence Pugh Performances That Confirm Her Status as a ...

Florence Pugh is that rare thing in Hollywood: a 20-something who’s gone from rising star to powerhouse in less than a decade, and has, miraculously, rarely put a foot wrong on her journey to the top. Yes, she’s known for lacing herself into corsets to play plucky young period drama heroines, but she’s equally at home in pacy spy thrillers, blood-curdling horror movies, heartwarming comedies, and superhero blockbusters—not to mention tear-jerking romances, like her latest sweeping drama, We Live in Time.

Ahead of the film’s release, we revisit her eight best films and TV shows to date.

The actor broke out at the age of 18 in her feature debut, Carol Morley’s unsettling mystery The Falling, opposite Maisie Williams, but it was William Oldroyd’s icy, atmospheric, and unbearably tense costume drama—the tale of a young woman in a loveless marriage who embarks on a torrid affair with deadly consequences—that left critics and audiences stunned. Quietly watchful, startlingly vulnerable, and then utterly terrifying, she is extraordinary, conveying a whole world of emotions with just her eyes, the pursing of her lips, and Alice Birch’s deliciously sparse dialogue.

Even when the spotlight isn’t fully on Pugh, she’s often still the standout. A case in point? This gripping, ’70s-set, Park Chan-wook-directed John le Carré adaptation, in which she embodies a glamorous, charismatic actor recruited for a perilous mission alongside the likes of Alexander Skarsgård and Michael Shannon. There are astounding twists, a deep dive into knotty contemporary politics, and exquisite period detailing, but through it all, it’s impossible to take your eyes off her.

With jet-black hair, thick eyeliner, a lip ring, and a grungy wardrobe of leather jackets and plaid shirts, Pugh transforms into Saraya “Paige” Bevis, a formidable, sharp-tongued young wrestler battling to join the WWE, in Stephen Merchant’s raucous ensemble comedy. It sees her train hard, annihilate her opponents, and prove that few can rival her impressive range.

Ari Aster’s gloriously trippy folk horror is a grim, gory, shocking, sun-drenched delight—and it works because Pugh is endlessly compelling as the bleary-eyed student at its heart. Reeling from the recent death of her parents and sister, she decides to follow her douchey boyfriend (Jack Reynor) on a midsummer trip to a Swedish commune, one that ends with creepy sex rituals, bear-burning, and people bludgeoning each other to death while wearing human skin…naturally. Despite all the mind-melting shenanigans, you believe in her completely as she despairs, questions her life choices, and ultimately triumphs.

In Pugh’s hands, and under Greta Gerwig’s virtuosic direction, the long-vilified Amy March becomes a razor-sharp, clear-eyed, and fiercely ambitious hero for our times—second only to Saoirse Ronan’s iconic Jo—in this swooning and wonderfully fleet-footed take on the Louisa May Alcott classic. By playing with the story’s timeline, the auteur upends the audience’s perception of the youngest March sister: we meet her as an aspiring artist, setting Timothée Chalamet’s debauched Laurie back on the straight and narrow, before we see the young girl who burned her sister’s book years earlier—and even then, we’re confronted with her childish frustration and restlessness instead of writing her off as a spoiled brat. It’s a masterful turn that rightfully earned her Oscar, BAFTA, and Critics’ Choice Award nominations.

As if on a mission to demonstrate that there is literally nothing she can’t do, Pugh then transitioned from prestigious, awards-laden fare to rip-roaring action, joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the straight-shooting, knife-wielding Yelena Belova, the quippy, deadpan foil to Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff. After Cate Shortland’s explosive crowdpleaser, she reprised the part with relish in Disney+’s Hawkeye.

Back in hoop skirts and starched white collars, Pugh then brought her signature steeliness and unwavering commitment to Sebastián Lelio’s painterly chiller, which follows an inscrutable nurse who travels to rural Ireland in the late 19th century to observe a young girl who claims to be surviving only on manna from heaven. A hard-headed sceptic who conceals countless secrets of her own, she vows to get to the bottom of the mystery—and delivers justice in an unjust world.

This decade-spanning, time-jumping love story from Brooklyn’s John Crowley sees the actor blow us all away yet again as Almut, a boundary-pushing chef who falls for Andrew Garfield’s dashing Tobias before their idyllic life together is threatened by a tragic twist of fate. She’ll make you choke with laughter, weep uncontrollably, and, in one barnstorming sequence, leave your jaw on the floor, reminding us of what we already know: There’s no one quite like Pugh.