Florence Pugh has no plans to return to roles like “Midsommar” because of how poor her mental health got filming the Ari Aster horror-thriller.
While guesting on “The Louis Theroux Podcast,” Pugh explained that she abused her mental health so much playing Dani in the 2019 horror film that she made a promise to herself to avoid roles like it in the future. Her character suffers a mental breakdown after going on vacation with her boyfriend.
“I just can’t exhaust myself like that because it has a knock-on effect,” Pugh said. “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 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.”
She added: “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.”
“Midsommer” was Aster’s second film after 2018’s breakout horror hit “Hereditary.” Pugh explained that her character’s spiral into a mental breakdown at the hands of her toxic boyfriend on their trip had her just falling headfirst into that mindset. It wasn’t just the loud moments that affected her but the whole energy surrounding playing Dani that stuck with Pugh long after the film wrapped.
“It wasn’t just crying. I needed to sound pained,” Pugh said. “I’d never done anything like that before and I 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–ked me up.”
The 5 Best Florence Pugh Movies, Ranked