Florence Pugh is the moment. Having gone from a burgeoning newcomer to a magnificently skilful lead in just a few years, the 26-year-old’s filmography already features an impressive cornucopia of roles — all of them demonstrating her acting prowess. The Oscar-nominated actor brings a charisma to all of her characters, whether that be a Scottish queen, a WWE wrestler, or an innocent housewife caught in a web of lies.
While her name was on everyone’s lips following the circulating controversy and gossip of Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling, Florence has made her second cinematic appearance in the comparatively quiet The Wonder by Sebastián Lelio. Much more of it is surely set to come with her upcoming roles too, including Dune: Part Two and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer.
But for now, here are Florence Pugh’s performances (so far) ranked.
12. The Commuter (2018)
As Liam Neeson plays an ex-cop in this dampened thriller trying to locate a mystery passenger on board a commuter train in what becomes a life-or-death mission, Florence appears for just a few minutes. She plays Gwen, a young woman with emo style wearing a septum piercing and choker. Though her contribution to the film is minimal, she does manage to march down a moving train without stumbling once. A true talent masterclass.
11. Malevolent (2018)
The synopsis of Olaf de Fleur’s British horror sounds like some god-awful YouTube prank channel: a brother-sister duo is running a fake medium scam to convince paying guests of paranormal encounters. But the film’s real mystery is how they secured Florence for a role she had already outgrown. It’s a movie you’d only sit through for her: it’s not car crash material, but it’s far from her best.
10. The Falling (2014)
Carol Morley’s 2014 drama The Falling is an investigation of the phenomenon of mass psychogenic illness that causes fainting spells at a girls’ school. This was her first credited acting role and she was in good company, starring alongside a young Maisie Williams, Florence plays Maisie’s character’s intense best friend, the one who begins the fainting chain reaction after having sex with her brother. For a screen debut, it’s a dicey character, but Pugh is quietly assured as she flexes her budding acting muscles.
9. King Lear (2018)
An adaptation of the Shakespeare play, King Lear is bolstered by a stunning cast including Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson and Emily Watson. Although it teeters on being the sort of TV movie a substitute teacher would switch on during an English class, King Lear sees Florence hold her own against prestigious British actors. She stands tall and with a confident kind of patience in the role of Cordelia. In lesser hands, such a character would fade into the background.
8. Outlaw King (2018)
The actress becomes a royal 14th-century noblewoman Elizabeth de Burgh who marries Robert the Bruce, Chris Pine’s titular Scottish monarch, in Outlaw King. Red hair tumbling over her shoulders between scenes of grimy warfare, Florence plays a woman for whom loyalty is a cross to die on. Her refined performance as Scottish queen consort is equal parts regal and fervent.
7. Black Widow (2021)
Florence joined the MCU in Cate Shortland’s superhero film. It introduces her as Yelena, the younger sister of Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha. A skilled fighter with a bratty streak, Yelena is a chaotic assassin that is the vessel for Florence’s scene-stealing turn. She offers the most engaging performance of the film, tapping into shades of power and vulnerability with a sensitivity that feels new to the usually brash MCU. Entering this cinematic universe marks a major step in visibility for Florence with her magnetic acting adroitness introduced to a new host of soon-to-be fans. Also, it seems a Yelena spin-off may be in the works. We can only hope Pugh is given the reins to lead it.
6. Fighting With My Family (2019)
If you thought Florence’s fighting abilities were impressive in Black Widow, you’re not prepared for her wrestling skills in Fighting With My Family. Based on Max Fisher’s documentary The Wrestlers: Fighting with My Family, she takes on the headstrong Saraya ‘Paige’ Bevis, a young potty-mouthed woman intent on becoming the next WWE star, with sublime force. Florence navigates the role with a steely determination that elevates this gritty sports drama beyond what you’d expect of it. Not convinced yet? Well, The Rock also makes a cameo too.
5. Lady Macbeth (2016)
William Oldroyd’s Lady Macbeth felt like the moment Florence was solidified as a bonafide star. Playing Katherine Lester in 1865 rural England, she is an unwilling wife confined to a stultifying home. Internalised rage bubbles to the surface in an explosion captured with tight close-ups — the kind that would expose every flaw of Florence’s performance, if she had any. She moves with purpose, every glance intentional, laced with an untampered stoicism.
4. Don’t Worry Darling (2022)
Harry Styles may bring the pop to the cinema, but Florence arrives with an entire bar cart. She is exceptional as Alice, a housewife whose life is an endless groundhog day of cooking breakfast, waving her husband off to work, and cleaning and cooking until he returns paired with the occasional pool and cocktail session. As Florence’s love for a transgressive character then begins to take shape, her cherubic features become front and centre of the sun-soaked nightmare that unfolds. She’s in her element, going head to head with Chris Pine, a fierce battle of dramatic timing and rivalling charisma that is the film’s enthralling centrepiece. Ultimately, though, Florence is the MVP of this film.No one even gets close to being on her level.
3. The Wonder (2022)
In Sebastián Lelio’s psychological period drama The Wonder, based on Emma Donoghue’s novel of the same name, Pugh plays Lib Wright, a dutiful nurse healing deep, complex wounds. It is 1862, and Lib arrives in Ireland to observe and make logical sense of an apparent miracle: an 11-year-old girl who hasn’t eaten in four months. It’s an unhurried film that makes excellent use of Pugh’s wide-eyed expressions, flitting from disbelief to concern as medical science clashes with religion. Whether she’s stomping through deep mud in frustration or delicately trying to teach a child that her reality is impossible, Florence delivers an exquisitely balanced, heartrending turn.
2. Little Women (2019)
For Greta Gerwig’s Little Women, Florence received an Academy Award nomination for marking the trickiest March sister deeply loveable. And rightly so: Florence imbues Amy March with a new lease of life, including putting it to Timothée Chalamet’s Laurie in a jaw-dropping, endlessly quotable monologue that she delivers with an unexpected bite. “I’m not a poet, I’m just a woman… So don’t sit there and tell me that marriage isn’t an economic proposition, because it is. It may not be for you but it most certainly is for me,” her monologue concludes, staring Laurie down with a composed ferocity. In an ensemble of stand-outs, Florence fits right in. Whether screaming about her petite feet or painting natural landscapes, she’s a gem in Greta Gerwig’s crown.
1. Midsommar (2019)
Is there any more iconic image than Florence Pugh draped in a blanket of flowers with a childish frown on her lips? I think not. In Ari Aster’s A24 folk horror Midsommar, Pugh is one half of a dysfunctional couple who take a trip to a Swedish ancestral commune as an unconventional means of therapy. Florence’s formidable presence is our anchor in this psychedelic experience of a movie. She’s hypnotic in her compounded grief and terror, a concoction hard to balance in a sunny rural landscape. The startling performance from Florence sees a naive smile flip into a sunken grimace, a coruscating kaleidoscope of emotions that this splendid actor manages with absolute mastery.