'As a young woman everything is forced to be so sexual, so quickly': Little Women star Florence Pugh opens up about coming of age World, get in formation for Camilla James... We are barely a minute into our FaceTime call and Florence Pugh is already pulling her leg above her head to show off her jogging bottoms. “You love it, especially on video call,” she suggestively jests about her flexibility. It’s immediately clear that not only is Florence a born performer, but a joker, too. “I was always annoyingly loud,” she laughs, all the way from her Boston hotel room. Florence’s very mobile approach – quite literally – to life is in stark contrast to the corseted constraints that were placed on Amy March, the character she plays in the latest remake of Little Women, by Lady Bird director Greta Gerwig. This modern twist on the classic 19th century tale of four sisters has already garnered the actress a Critic’s Choice Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Much like keen artist Amy, Florence has painted her own path from the outset. As we joke, it’s ‘roles before hoes’, for this actress. “When I left school, I was very aware that I needed to work hard straight away – you have to attack it and I knew people wouldn’t understand how much I wanted it,” Florence shares in her trademark husky voice. “I was very much on a personal mission and I put my whole life on hold until my career got going. I was like that from the get-go, especially with relationships. I remember when I was 18 years old and I was so cut-throat about how everything had to be second to my career. Boyfriends I had at the time – bless them – were like, ‘but why?’ I just said, ‘This is the way it has to be.’ I remember thinking at the time they don’t get it, and it was really mean of me, but I had to do that in order to succeed.” However, a sister can’t always do it for herself, and the girl gang Florence met on the set of Little Women – her onscreen sisters, Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson and Eliza Scanlen – became her support network off screen, too. When I ask her what the film has taught her about sisterhood, Florence replies instantly and true to form: “You can’t fake it. It’s real.” |
“We really were a tight sisterhood and we knew it had to be that way in order for it to be real and believable,” she continues. “Whether it’s on or off screen, you’ll never get anything like the power of that support system and that belief we had in one another. We were ready to go to war for one another. If one of us has something to say, then we all have something to say!” Florence also found a wingman in form of her fictional lover and the internet’s number one crush Timothée Chalamet – whose performance in Little Women confirms him as the Mr Darcy of our generation. “Timmy was so involved with all the girls,” Florence says affectionately. “He was just as desperate to be a part of our gang as we were. He was instantly in with the jokes and the wrestling. Everything about that dynamic didn’t feel like we were welcoming a boy – it was really wonderful.” While the March sisters grew up in conservative New England during a decidedly ‘unwoke’ period for women, Florence’s own coming of age story occurred in the equally secluded English countryside. Also one of four siblings, she attended Oxford private school, St Edward’s (where the alumni casually includes Emilia Clarke and Laurence Olivier). In a dynamic to rival the March sisters themselves, Florence and her siblings all chipped in at the family-owned Oxford Deli before they all ventured into acting. Her elder brother Toby Sebastian notably played Game of Thrones’ Trystane Martell. |
“I had a bloody hard time going from a child to a woman because I didn’t even know what was happening,” Florence confides, reflecting on her teens and her own graduation from womanhood. “One of the most shocking things about growing up for me, was realising that my body was becoming a woman before I was mentally ready or prepared to be one. Suddenly you had to be OK with people looking at you or checking you out. It’s something that makes you grow up so quickly because as a young woman everything is forced to be so sexual, so quickly. I heavily remember being at a gig when I was 12 years old and thinking that everybody was trying to kidnap me. ‘Why is everyone looking at me,’ I thought. But actually, they were just looking at me because I now had boobs and a bum! It was one of the oddest moments of puberty for me.” The next time Florence found her body under close inspection came at the start of her acting career – one which began at 17 years old starring alongside Maisie Williams in The Falling. “I did a job where it was made very apparent that I needed to lose weight [by the team working on the production] and when it was over, I was very aware I didn’t want to do that kind of work,” she sighs, keeping the gig in question a secret. “Because I was faced with that, I realised what I wanted to represent, and had that not happened, I may not have overcome my issues with my body at such an early age. I’m happy about that, but a lot of women aren’t that lucky.” It’s made Florence all too aware of the current “body shaming” on social media – something she labels the most pressing issue facing young women today. “I’ve always seen social media as a bit of a joke,” Florence tells me. After all, she takes a jovial approach to Instagram, detailing everything from popping spots – something she called the ‘closest thing I have come to the feeling of childbirth,’ in one Instagram story – to her sheer disbelief at working on Marvel’s |
“But I have a sister who’s seven years younger than me and it’s made me acutely aware of the negatives of social media. The impact it has on her life at every stage of the day is unbelievable,” Florence adds. “The idea that life doesn’t stop when school ends, it continues into the night and your issues continue too, is awful. I’d hate growing up like that. Seeing that has made me more conscious of everyone’s constant impulse to have whatever is on their phone so I try not to add to that as much as I can. It’s pretty gross at times, right? Everybody has an impact because everyone is adopting a pretend persona on Insta and it’s terrifying. The problem is that social media is based around insecurity and it wouldn’t work unless everyone is insecure.” Florence does, however, seem refreshingly secure. She has no time for trolling comments – “you just have to move on,” – and she never overthinks an answer for the entire interview. Everything Florence says feels like it comes completely from her gut and doubtful thoughts are quashed with self-deprecating humour. “I can’t stand to watch anything I am in until two years later,” Florence jests when I ask about her insecurities, and she is equally casual about her talent. “I can pull off a lot of hair colours so I think that’s what saved me,” she retorts. But a rare ability to pull of multiple hair colours (jealous, much?) won’t land you a role in the Marvel universe alone. And for her neck-high kicking trick, Florence is starring alongside Scarlett Johnson in Black Widow as the title character’s native Russian sister, Yelena. In typical Marvel style the storyline – other than it explores how “I’m not bad at keeping secrets, it’s just that you don’t know what you can and can’t say. I can say it was epic on all levels. It is very unique and special to be in this era of superhero films with Scarlett [Johansson] and all these women who have been desperate to make a story about this character for so long – I got to see |
If the trailer is anything to go by – which just dropped at Comic Con in Brazil earlier this month – expect to see Florence change gear again, into full Sporty Spice mode as she goes toe to toe with the formidable cast that also includes Rachel Weisz. “I really enjoy stunts,” she expresses, beaming with excitement. “I wanted to do as many stunts, so straight away I learnt kickboxing and knife training!” Gurl has clearly got some serious skills. Then again, you’d need them when you are going up against the OG Marvel maven Scarlett – with whom there was little room for pleasantries. “I’d only known her for a week when we started beating each other up,” Florence laughs. This experience, along with the varied roles Florence has undertaken in recent years – most notably playing the reluctant spy in BBC's Little Drummer Girl and a Victorian governess in Lady Macbeth, which earned her a BAFTA Rising Star nomination – has taught her to finally have faith in herself. “Last year I realised I was working with such big people who were genuinely interested in what I thought.” Florence tells me, referencing starring alongside the likes of Meryl Streep in Being in demand (Florence squeezes her GLAMOUR cover shootinto a single day off in her filming schedule for Black Widow) has come at a price, however. “This year is the culmination of everything I have been working on for over four years, but what comes with that is the low of being on the road all the time and you are never in one space,” she says as a person of no fixed address. Caught firmly in the eye of her own storm, Florence has also had to learn to look after herself. Something she discovered while filming this summer’s breakthrough horror movie, Midsommar, where Florence’s Dani skips off to a Swedish music festival only to find herself submerged in a cult she can’t escape from. “It was tough on me as I had to be in such a level of mourning and depression that I had never experienced before,” Florence divulges. “I’m not an actor who can immediately cry, so my process for doing that film was imagining all the people I cared about in coffins which wasn’t kind to the head or heart. You have to make sure you give yourself time afterwards and eat good food, go on long walks and cuddle your gran. I remember worrying about spending money on weekly massages to zone out but as my co-star, Jack Reynor said to me, ‘Flo you’re literally in hippy hell every single day, I think you deserve some nice calm time.’ I was like, ‘true thing!’” Aside from being the kinda gal you’d love to do shots at the bar with, Florence is also someone you’d want to share your problems with too. “I remember when I didThe Outlaw King,” she says, referencing the Netflix film where she played the Queen to Chris Pine’s Robert The Bruce. “I had a night where all the boys came round and they just wanted to be pampered. They all had big burly beards and I was putting face masks on them. Everybody is just looking for that family on film sets because you need it – you’re running away with the circus!” If Hollywood is the circus, Florence is certainly its new-gen ringleader. An unpretentious master, with an intoxicating mix of talent and hilarity. And as she blows kisses down the phone – skipping off for another day on the promotional tour for Little Women – I find myself absolutely obsessed. World: get in formation for Florence Pugh. Little Women is released in cinemas on 26 December |
|
Midsommar in a nutshell
sharp objects // killing eve#amma crellin #villanelle #camilla james #ellie leitch #just some feral murder girls who want cake #a sharp objects x killing eve crossover is the shit we deserve #(and not just because i want cami and ellie onscreen together again) #(okay yes partly that) #(EXCEPT THIS TIME THEY WOULD ACTUALLY SHARE SCREENTIME)
oldglamour:
Princess Brea from “The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance” (Ep. 3). |
unpopular (according to tumblr, at any rate) opinion time: camilla james was not snubbed by her lack of an emmy nomination. she wasn't THAT GREAT in sharp objects compared to amy adams or patricia clarkson. cool! she can play an affluent white girl teenager that occasionally gives someone a stare down! so can literally every other actress in existence. it wasn't a revelation of a performance in any way, shape, or form, so stop your bitching. (there's also literally no reason she deserves some kind of oscar nom for midsommar because it was overrated as fuck and i'm NOT excited for the inevitable whining when she doesn't get one because the academy just doesn't give a shit about horror films and you'd think these little snowflakes would have wrapped their heads around that by now AND YET??)
#camilla james #amy adams #patricia clarkson #sharp objects
moment of appreciation for camilla james aka queen of "sociopathic murder babies" |
Way, way, way too many reviews of Midsommar: Christian is at turns flawed and sympathetic. He’s somewhat distant and perhaps lacks empathy, but in the end it’s impossible to cast judgement on anyone.
Every single post about Midsommar I’ve seen on tumblr: Okay so there’s some skull crushing and stuff but mostly you’re gonna love this story about Dani setting her emotionally abusive boyfriend on fire.
can we just take a moment to talk about how, truly, the king of all daddy issues is being in a remake of a movie your dad did where you play one of the love interests of the character he played, i just
#camilla james #theodore young #the beguiled #i don't understand how did her team let her do this H O W
Snippets from Marie Claire UK interview in the June 2019 issue Why do you think you attract such dark, edgy roles? It's funny, anyone who knows me will tell you I'm not dark or edgy. But that's sort of the point? I don't think I could play someone very much like myself. I think the lines would blur too much for me. And I know that's not a very good thing to say in this business, because as an actor you're supposed to be separating things out, but I think it's more because it just wouldn't be as interesting to me. Why would I want to play someone who is just like me when I could play someone like Amma, you know? My agent knows at this point that he doesn't even need to send me scripts for things that aren't a little darker. But I did film Little Women recently, and that was probably the closest I've come to playing someone like me, being able to play Amy. I'm really excited about that project, actually, Greta [Gerwig] made something really, really great. Have you seen Winona Ryder's Little Women (1994)? Actually, no! Which is kind of funny because it's actually my favorite book of all time. I think maybe that's why I never really saw any of the adaptations; I wasn't sure anything could live up to what I had built up in my own head the more I reread the novel. Kiki [Kirsten Dunst, costar on The Beguiled] was in that one, actually, the Winona Ryder one, and I wanted to watch it for her, but by the time I got around to grabbing a copy of the film, I'd gotten cast in Greta's adaptation and I didn't want to cloud our version of it with another. Which isn't a comment on any of the other adaptations! I'm sure they're all incredible. I just wanted to go in with my own version of Amy, one that was just for me. |
ANYA TAYLOR-JOY and CAMILLA JAMES in THOROUGHBREDS (2018)
The only thing worse than being incompetent or being unkind or being evil is being indecisive.
jern @TheClassicMartie ∙ Dec 11 WHY did NO ONE tell me that Camilla James speaks perfect French??? Watching this interview with C à vous and it's like oh yeah ok yes I would in fact let u hit me with ur car as long as you spoke français while you did it
|
sabina not sabrina @tcaosabina ∙ Dec 12 who in sony's camp just did not do their fucking job and not get their little women screeners out in time because that's the only reason i can think of that sho and alexis key and camilla james are not getting their awards due AT FUCKING ALL. WHO DROPPED THE BALL I JUST WANNA TALK 🔪🔪
|
E D E N @eden_bright ∙ Dec 12 Thinking about starting a support group for people who also cannot believe Camilla James is getting fucked over and not recognized for Midsommar OR Little Women.... sicked and twisted tbh
|
E D E N @eden_bright ∙ Dec 12 camilla james not getting nominated for midsommar is my villain origin story
|
megs @megs_turner21 ∙ Dec 11 do you ever sometimes sit and cry because camilla james didn't get the recognition she deserved with the vvitch and sharp objects and now it's happening again with midsommar and little women because same
|
this is a camilla james stan account @gretagerwigsflex ∙ Aug 4 THE WOMAN IS NOT WRONG feel the rain was the most iconic song of our generation and without this band we wouldn't have jesse mccartney so thank you camilla james for teaching your kids what is RIGHT
|
k-k-kristina @emiliaclarkeism ∙ Aug 20 if you think camilla james would ever work with quentin "i'm an abusive director AND a roman polanski sympathizer" tarantino (even a remake of something he's done!!!) you're delusional and don't know her at all, baby girl wouldn't even see once upon a time in hollywood
|
🌈 ella bella 🌈 @thecallofella ∙ Aug 21 lol do all you whiny bitch babies ever think that maybe camilla james didn't get any nominations (lbr bitch ain't getting a bafta or oscar nom either at this rate) because she's just not good jw
|
camilla james updates @camijamesupdates ∙ Aug 30 our queen camilla james got some new hand tattoos! mom looks so cute with them, i wish she would tell us the meaning behind them!!
|
𝚋 𝚛 𝚒 𝚊 𝚗 𝚗 𝚊 @yuhyee ∙ Sep 3 so you're saying that new mutants cutting out all mentions of x-men means it might wind up in the mcu?? thank GOD because truly alexis key and camilla james are the only ones that can save my interest in it after years of subpar bs (infinity war and endgame were shit pass it on)
|
𝓂ℯℊ𝒶𝓃 𝓁ℴ𝓋ℯ𝓈 𝒿𝒶𝓃𝒾𝓈 𝒿ℯ𝒻𝒻𝓇𝒾ℯ𝓈 @sexyjanis_ ∙ Sep 11 If J.Lo gets nominated for Hustlers and Janis Jeffries doesn't get nominated for Lucy in the Sky (IT WAS GOOD FUCK DA CRITICS) and Camilla James doesn't get nominated for Midsommar I'm gonna fight a lot of people
|
Load more comments
camilla 🤗❤️💞
bobbyberk Pictures don't do it justice, this place is even prettier in person!
margo.fulton damn their teams are workin real hard to try and push a wholesome image to make us forget about that dirty asf sex tape aren't they
nicolemay love love loooove a dark kitchen!!! 🖤🖤
boze.heks I literally come here to see good architecture and insightful celebrity home tours from A-listers, not sure how either of them qualify 🤔🤔
vivkimoon WHY ARE PEOPLE SO BIG ON OPEN SHELVING I LITERALLY DON'T NEED TO SEE YOUR DAMN DISHES AND POTS AND PANS WHEN I COME OVER
lkingdon @vivkimoon bold of u to assume you'd ever be invited over
elizanoelle1 Does anyone know where I can get these copper pans??? This is a need not a want!!
wolfhowls Literally don't buy that this is actually their house, I always figured Camilla James would live in some sort of witches' hut with all sorts of crystals and cauldrons and bottled rabbits feet 🔪👁👀