Florence Pugh Reflects on the Emotional Toll of ‘Midsommar’ Role

In a recent interview on the Reign with Josh Smith podcast, Florence Pugh opened up about the emotional toll her role in Midsommar took on her. The actress, who played Dani, a grief-stricken American woman who descends into a psychological breakdown during a trip to a Swedish midsummer festival, revealed that she would not likely take on a similar role again due to the intensity of the experience.

Pugh admitted that her performance in Midsommar involved personal sacrifice, describing how she felt she had "abused" herself in the process. "There have been some roles where I’ve given too much and I’ve been broken for a long while afterwards," she shared. "Like when I did Midsommar, I definitely felt like I abused myself in the places that I got myself to go."

The actress emphasized the importance of protecting her well-being as an actor, acknowledging the necessity of recognizing when a role might be too emotionally taxing. "The nature of figuring these things out is you need to go, ‘Alright, well, I can’t do that again because that was too much,'" Pugh explained. However, she expressed pride in the final result, noting that she doesn’t regret the role. "I’m proud of what I did, and I’m proud of what came out of me," she said.

Pugh clarified that any emotional strain experienced during filming was self-inflicted, explaining that director Ari Aster, known for his unique and intense approach to filmmaking, had no part in causing her distress. In fact, she praised Aster for his creativity, describing him as "peculiar in a mad genius kind of a way" and a "stand-up comedian at heart." "Once you laugh at one thing, he will try and make you laugh at all the other things," she added. "He’ll keep going and everybody will be crying in fits of laughter."

Despite the challenges, Pugh admitted that not all aspects of the Midsommar shoot were enjoyable. "We were shooting in a very hot field with three different languages, so I wouldn’t say that all of it was pleasurable," she recalled. "Also, it shouldn’t be. Why would making a movie like that be pleasurable?"

Reflecting on the demands of the role, Pugh also acknowledged the extreme emotional places she had to go to deliver the performance. In a previous interview on the Off Menu podcast, she revealed that she had never portrayed a character experiencing as much pain as Dani, and she often placed herself in difficult situations to connect with the character's trauma. "I was putting things in my head that were getting worse and more bleak," Pugh explained. "By the end, I probably, most definitely abused my own self in order to get that performance."

After wrapping Midsommar, Pugh immediately transitioned to the set of Little Women, directed by Greta Gerwig. The emotional switch between such contrasting roles left her feeling conflicted. "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," she shared. "It’s so weird. I’ve never had that before... 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."