In under a decade, Florence Pugh has built one of the most varied filmographies in contemporary cinema. She moves between independent dramas, horror, period pieces, and blockbuster franchises without losing her distinct presence. What sets Pugh apart is her ability to ground even the most stylized storylines with performances that feel authentic. Each role shows a different facet of her range, but together they form a career built on bold choices and consistent craft.
Early Steps and Breakthrough
While your starting point is Lady Macbeth, it helps to acknowledge her earlier appearances briefly, to see how her craft matured.
The Falling (2014)
Director: Carol Morley
Pugh’s Role: Abbie Mortimer
Pugh’s first credited film role was playing Abbie Mortimer. The film centers on teenage girls in a 1960s boarding school, caught up in mysterious fainting episodes. Though her screen time is limited, Pugh shows early promise—imbuing Abbie with a mix of defiance and vulnerability, hinting at the emotional range she would later fully exploit.
Outlaw King (2018)
Director: David Mackenzie
Pugh’s Role: Elizabeth de Burgh.
She plays Elizabeth de Burgh, the wife of Robert the Bruce (portrayed by Chris Pine). While not the central figure in this sweeping historical epic, Pugh brings dignity and strength to Elizabeth—she is more than a mere consort. Her presence anchors parts of Bruce’s emotional and political journey.
These roles, though smaller, allowed Pugh to test different genres and historical settings, preparing her for more demanding leads. Now, let’s dive into some of her major roles.
Major Roles and Breakthrough Performances
Lady Macbeth (2016)
Director: William Oldroyd
Role: Katherine Lester
This role is often considered Pugh’s breakout. Based (loosely) on the Russian novella Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, the story is transposed to 19th-century rural England. Katherine is trapped in a loveless marriage to a much older man and lives under the stern watch of her husband’s family. Over the course of the film, she evolves from a subjugated wife into someone who wields power and control—ultimately committing morally ambiguous acts to seize her own fate.
Pugh’s performance is gripping. She inhabits the quiet suffering of Katherine in the first half—her small facial twitches, repressed frustration, longing for freedom, and then pivots into resolute ruthlessness. Critics praised the nuance: she is neither saint nor fully villain, but rather a person pushed to extremes.
This role won her the British Independent Film Award for Best Actress.
Midsommar (2019)
Director: Ari Aster
Pugh’s Role: Dani Ardor
One of Pugh’s most talked-about performances. Midsommar is a folk-horror in which a grieving young woman, Dani, travels with her boyfriend and his friends to a remote Swedish commune for a midsummer festival. The commune’s rituals turn sinister and psychologically scarring.
Dani begins the film emotionally fragile: she’s just suffered a horrible personal tragedy and is already vulnerable. Pugh grounds her in raw grief—it’s not performance. As the film progresses, Dani becomes both victim and agent; she pushes back, reasserts herself, and ultimately emerges as a disturbing figure in her own right. Her emotional breakdowns, quivering voice, and silent moments are all searing. Critics have noted how much of the film rides on her shoulders, and she delivers with total commitment.
In interviews, Pugh has acknowledged how intense and draining the role was, saying she “abused” herself emotionally in pursuing it.
Little Women (2019)
Director: Greta Gerwig
Pugh’s Role: Amy March
In Little Women, Pugh plays Amy March, the youngest of the March sisters in Louisa May Alcott’s classic novel. Over the course of the film, we see Amy grow from a somewhat petulant, opinionated girl into a mature woman, an artist, and a social actor.
Pugh’s Amy is layered. She is often dismissed as the spoiled sister, but Gerwig’s version allows her more agency and emotional depth. Pugh conveys Amy’s ambition, her jealousy, her insecurities, and a yearning for recognition. She also plays the character’s contradictions: occasionally vain, but also caring; impulsive, but capable of sacrifices. Many critics singled her out as the “breakout” of the ensemble, saying she manages to own scenes that might otherwise default to Jo’s narrative.
This performance earned her nominations for the Academy Award and the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress.
Black Widow (2021)
Director: Cate Shortland
Pugh’s Role: Yelena Belova
Entering the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Pugh took on Yelena Belova, a younger “sister” figure to Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson). The film’s plot delves into the dark history of the “Red Room,” forced training, familial deceptions, and the path to redemption.
Pugh brings charm, physicality, and emotional resonance. Yelena is witty, combative, but also haunted by trauma. She counterpoints Natasha’s stoicism with more open anger and sarcasm. In action sequences, Pugh handles the physical demands deftly; in quieter scenes, she reveals the scars of betrayal and separation. Critics often say she is one of the most “alive” characters in the ensemble—someone with a full internal life, not just a sidekick.
She reprised Yelena in Hawkeye (Disney+ mini-series) and will reappear in Thunderbolts (2025).
Don’t Worry Darling (2022)
Director: Olivia Wilde
Pugh’s Role: Alice Chambers
This thriller is set in an idealized, 1950s-style experimental community where Alice starts suspecting something sinister behind the utopian facade. Pugh’s Alice is initially compliant, optimistic, and somewhat naive, but as cracks appear, she grows in suspicion.
While the film had its controversies, Pugh’s performance was generally seen as a highlight—she navigates shifts from soft affability to fierce determination. Her expression of confusion, fear, and resistance helps anchor the film’s atmosphere.
The Wonder (2022)
Director: Sebastián Lelio
Pugh’s Role: Lib Wright
Set in 1862, this period drama follows Lib, a nurse sent from England to investigate a curious “miracle” in rural Ireland: a girl claims to survive without food. As Lib unravels the truth, she becomes emotionally entangled with the girl, the local community, and her own doubts.
Pugh’s Lib is austere and skeptical at first, but gradually vulnerable. She presents a mix of empathy and professional detachment while being pulled into moral conflict. Her internal struggle to believe what seems impossible versus skepticism is the heartbeat of the film. Reviewers praised how believable she remains even when events stretch into the supernatural.
A Good Person (2023)
Director: Zach Braff
Pugh’s Role: Allison
In this drama, Pugh also steps into a producing role. Allison is a car-crash survivor, grappling with guilt, recovery, and reconciling with the people hurt by the accident. Pugh’s portrayal is committed: she physically transforms (cutting her hair), emotionally bares the consequences of trauma, and gives us moments of rage, despair, hope, and resignation. As a producer, she has spoken about wanting to tell stories of brokenness and healing.
Oppenheimer (2023)
Director: Christopher Nolan
Pugh’s Role: Jean Tatlock
In this biopic about J. Robert Oppenheimer (played by Cillian Murphy), Jean Tatlock is a complex presence: a psychiatrist, a Communist Party member, and Oppenheimer’s romantic and intellectual foil.
Though her screen time is relatively limited compared to the lead, Pugh makes every moment count. She portrays Tatlock with intelligence and emotional intensity. In scenes with Oppenheimer, there’s tension, attraction, ideological friction, and mutual respect. Critics noted she “elegantly dominates her scenes,” despite the ensemble cast.
The film was a huge commercial and awards success—one of Pugh’s highest-grossing credits.
Dune: Part Two (2024)
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Pugh’s Role: Princess Irulan
In Dune: Part Two, Pugh joins the continuing epic adaptation of Frank Herbert’s saga, playing Princess Irulan, daughter of the Emperor and a figure with both political influence and narrative significance.
Irulan is often a complex character in the Dune lore—caught between imperial loyalty, ambition, and intricate personal relationships. In Pugh’s hands, she is regal yet conflicted, strategic yet constrained. She must balance appearing as a political actor rather than merely a decorative royal, and Pugh gets to show subtle shifts: when to hide, when to speak, when to leverage power. The role pushes her into grand sci-fi scale, while demanding she retain emotional specificity.
While the full scope of her character’s arc is still unfolding for audiences, early reception suggests she holds her own amid the film’s scale and ensemble, and contributes a nuanced feminine counterpoint to the male power struggles.
What Defines a Florence Pugh Performance
By tracing Pugh’s work from Lady Macbeth to Dune: Part Two, a few patterns emerge:
- Emotional depth and transformation: Many of her roles begin in pain, constraint, or crisis (Katherine, Dani, Allison, Lib) and evolve into agency, resistance, or reckoning.
- Moral ambiguity: She often plays characters who are not purely virtuous or evil—her complexity is central (Lady Macbeth, Amy in Little Women, Jean Tatlock).
- Versatility across genres: Gothic drama, folk horror, period pieces, sci-fi epics, superhero films—she moves fluidly between them.
- Physical and psychological commitment: She does stunts, transformations, and emotionally harrowing scenes. For Midsommar, she said the role was taxing; for A Good Person, she cut her own hair.
- Choosing strong, challenging material: Even when her role is not central (Jean Tatlock, Irulan), she picks parts with friction and depth, not mere ornamentation.
Final Thoughts
Florence Pugh’s career so far shows an actor making deliberate, challenging choices. She has balanced indie dramas with major franchises and, in each case, brought depth to her characters. Her performances resist simplification—her women are rarely just heroes or villains, but people negotiating complex circumstances. From Lady Macbeth to Dune: Part Two, Pugh has built a filmography that already feels substantial, and at only the beginning of her career, she is set to remain one of the defining actors of her generation.
