The best roles of Florence Pugh, star of Thunderbolts

by Emma Naroumbo Armaing, 

Violaine Schütz.

Publié le 16 april 2025. Modifié le 22 April 2025.

It’s hard to forget Florence Pugh’s signature pout. Her face—perpetually caught between a sulky scowl and a gleeful smile—combined with her undeniable talent, has given her access to complex characters who often border on madness.

Praised for roles such as Dani in Midsommar (2019) and young Amy March in Little Women (2019), the British actress continues to captivate audiences in increasingly gripping roles.

Florence Pugh’s best roles

Florence Pugh as a young woman drawn into a cult in Midsommar

In 2016, Pugh took on the role of Katherine Lester in Lady Macbeth, a 19th-century rural English noir directed by William Oldroyd. Though the film remained under the radar, her performance caught the eye of American director Ari Aster. Impressed, the Hereditary (2018) filmmaker cast her in the lead of his next horror feature, Midsommar.

While filming the spy miniseries The Little Drummer Girl (BBC One, 2018), Pugh received the Midsommar script. The film follows Dani (Pugh) and her boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor) as they attend a midsummer festival in a secluded pagan community in Sweden. What begins as a peaceful retreat spirals into brutality. From grief and psychological breakdown to a disturbing power shift, Pugh delivers a tour-de-force as a young woman slowly consumed by a cult.

Midsommar (2019) by Ari Aster available on Canal VOD and Prime Video.

A sensitive young woman in Little Women

Just months after Midsommar hit theaters, Pugh again wowed audiences as Amy March in Little Women (2019), directed by Greta Gerwig. In this adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s classic novel, Florence Pugh offers a moving performance as the youngest March sister, navigating the confines of womanhood during the Civil War era.

With a star-studded cast including Emma Watson, Saoirse Ronan, Eliza Scanlen, Timothée Chalamet, Louis Garrel, and Meryl Streep, the film was a major success. Pugh was named Best Supporting Actress at the 2020 Oscars and BAFTA Awards.

Little Women (2019) by Greta Gerwin is available on Netflix.

https://youtu.be/ybji16u608U

Scarlett Johansson’s successor in Black Widow

The double punch of Midsommar and Little Women in 2019 propelled Florence Pugh into stardom. In 2020, Forbes listed her among Europe’s 30 Under 30 most influential people. Her next big break came with Marvel‘s Black Widow, where she played Yelena Belova, the sister of Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson).

It was her very first role in a blockbuster—radically different from her previous choices—and it marked the beginning of a new phase in her career, one more geared toward mainstream audiences. Ahead of the film’s release, director Cate Shortland told Empire magazine: “The audience was expecting an origin story, so we went in the opposite direction. We didn’t know how amazing Florence would be. We knew she’d be incredible, but not to what extent. Scarlett is very supportive of her, in ‘passing the baton.’ This film is going to kick off a new narrative centered around a female character.”

Black Widow thus acts as a symbolic handover between Scarlett Johansson—who had already appeared in four Avengers films—and Florence Pugh, who now dons the Black Widow costume for the next chapters of the saga. And both actresses are brilliant in their roles.

Black Widow (2021) by Cate Shortland, available on Disney+.

A housewife in Don’t Worry Darling

Pugh returned to dramatic form with Olivia Wilde’s thriller Don’t Worry Darling (2022), co-starring Harry Styles. Despite a turbulent promotional campaign, the film—a feminist sci-fi fable set in a 1950s desert community—allowed Pugh to shine once again. Her haunting, seductive, and defiant performance hinted at Oscar potential.

The film also reminded viewers of Pugh’s musical talents. Under the name Flossie Rose, she once posted covers and originals on YouTube. In the privacy of her bedroom she would cover groups like Oasis or some of her own creations. She even wrote and performed two songs for the movie A Good Person (2023) by Zach Braff.

Don’t Worry Darling (2021) by Olivia Wilde, is available on Prime Video and Apple TV+.

A princess betrothed to Timothée Chalamet in Dune: Part Two

Very busy, the Valentino muse has been hopping from set to set, from her native England to the deserts of Abu Dhabi. She lit up Christopher Nolan’s dark film Oppenheimer (2023), which garnered numerous awards during the film season. A few months later, she took on a major role in the second chapter of the sci-fi saga Dune, directed by Denis Villeneuve. She plays Princess Irulan, daughter of Emperor Shaddam (Christopher Walken), whose fate is meant to be intertwined with that of Timothée Chalamet’s character. As a determined young woman, she impresses, nearly stealing the spotlight from her co-star Zendaya. In an interview with the UK edition of Harper’s Bazaar on April 15, 2025, the actress forecasted the return of Princess Irulan in the third and final installment of Dune, scheduled for release on December 16, 2026: “I hope we’ll be seeing more of her. I want more cool outfits!”

Dune: Part Two (2024) by Denis Villeneuve, available on myCanal.

Florence Pugh as a chef with cancer in We Live in Time

Florence Pugh’s rise is far from over… This past January, the future heroine of Thunderbolts* took on the lead role in We Live in Time, a romantic dramedy co-starring Andrew Garfield, which made a splash at the Toronto International Film Festival. She plays a trendy chef diagnosed with cancer, who becomes a mother and falls in love with a man she hit with her car (Andrew Garfield). Strong-willed, her character refuses to be defined by her illness and fights to win a prestigious culinary award, despite the grueling treatments she is undergoing.

We Live in Time (2025), by John Crowley, released in theaters on January 1, 2025.

Thunderbolts* (2025) by Jack Schreier, in theaters April 30, 2025.