Ari Aster‘s Swedish-set occult thriller “Midsommar” is a heavy watch, with an extremely grim flashback scene alluding to a tragic loss of life at the top of the first act, and the film’s characters (some clueless to the danger ahead) essentially going through a hellscape of horrors. It certainly left a toll on lead actress Florence Pugh (one of the big breakout lead performances from her as she plays a grief-stricken protagonist dealing with a self-centered boyfriend) as she recalled on “The Louis Theroux Podcast,” when she sat down for a chat, revealing it led to six months of depression.
“I just can’t exhaust myself like that because it has a knock-on effect,” Pugh said of pushing herself to the limit for acting roles. “I think [‘Midsommar’] made me sad for like six months after, and I didn’t know why I was depressed. I got back after shooting ‘Little Women,’ which was such a fun experience and obviously a completely different tone from ‘Midsommar,’ so I think [I] shelved all of that. And then when I got home for Christmas, I was so depressed, and I was like, ‘Oh, I think that’s from “Midsommar,”‘ and I didn’t deal with it, and I probably shouldn’t do that again.”
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“I had never seen that level of grief or mental health in the way that was being asked of me on the page. So for that, I really put myself through it. At the beginning, I just imagined hearing the news that one of my siblings had died, and then, towards the middle of the shoot, it was like, ‘Oh no, I actually needed to imagine the coffins.’ And then towards the end of the shoot, I actually was going to my whole family’s funeral.”
“Pugh adding, “And it was like, okay, well, here’s my opportunity. I need to give this a go, and I would just basically put myself through hell. But I don’t do that anymore…it really f***ed me up.”
The British actress also briefly mentioned not wanting to have made the 2018 Olaf de Fleur-directed film “Malevolent,” but wouldn’t elaborate further on that reasoning. We’re not going to start to speculate on what happened there, but we’re sure Pugh may explain what went on there when she’s ready.
You can check out that full exchange between Pugh and Theroux below.
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