Ari Aster’s folk horror film Midsommar truly is one of those movies you can only watch once following a young woman and her boyfriend drawn into a violent cult. Even when the A24 movie was first screened, people watching it were dropping F-bombs due to its disturbing nature. Midsommar’s lead, Florence Pugh, says she felt just as affected by her emotional performance going as far as to say, “I abused myself.”
To say that Midsommar is a wild vacation movie where everything goes wrong would be an understatement. Florence Pugh’s Dani is a grieving young woman whose sister undergoes a murder/suicide on herself and their parents. She and her very distant boyfriend are invited by a friend to a Swedish midsummer festival where they experience a bunch of disturbing rituals from commune members. On Reign with Josh Smith podcast, the British actress spoke about the importance of “protecting” herself from fully absorbing a role too much, saying “I abused myself” during Midsommar:
There’s been some roles that I’ve given too much and I’ve been broken for a long while afterwards. When I did Midsommar I definitely felt like I abused myself in the places that I got myself to go. I mean, the nature of figuring these things out is you need to go, ‘Alright, well, I can’t do that again cause that was too much.’
Florence Pugh certainly gave so much emotion in the summer horror flick. In the opening scene when Dani discovers the death of her family, the agonizing cries she gives out as she cuddles into her boyfriend are like nothing you’ve ever seen or heard before. It’s the same with the scene when Dani has a panic attack at the festival with the cult members mirroring her cries. I can understand Pugh diving headfirst into the role to give audiences a memorable performance, but still checking in with herself on whether or not going into her character’s intense headspace is too much for her.
The Oscar nominee has previously spoken about how Midsommar was not an easy film to be in. Other than how “hard” shooting was filming in a hot field of spiders and wasps, Florence Pugh had said playing Dani took a toll on her having to imagine the worst things to play a character in a lot of pain. It proves what kind of dedication an actress is willing to put herself through to give a believable performance.
Despite what an emotionally taxing acting experience shooting Midsommar was, Florence Pugh said she carries no shame with her:
But also I look at that performance and I’m really proud of what I did, and I’m proud of what came out of me. So I don’t regret it.
While diving deep into Dani’s mindset may not have been easy for Florence Pugh, she still helped make Midsommar the movie that was on the minds of everyone watching. You could argue it was the Black Widow actress’s best movie of the ‘10s. She was also nominated at the Gotham Independent Film Awards, won the Santa Barbara International Film Festival Virtuoso Award, and placed third as Best Actress with the National Society of Film Critics. After being put through the wringer in the slow-burning horror film, Pugh demonstrated her range as an actress, giving her genuine rising star status.
Florence Pugh’s emotional Midsommar performance as Dani remained in her mind five years after its release. It proves that while actresses can leave a role behind when filming is over, a role can’t always leave its actress. As Pugh “abused” herself to feel what her character felt, she created a portrayal that still resonates with audiences today. If you’re brave enough to revisit what the Oppenheimer actress described as a “beautiful nightmare” of a film, Midsommar is available on your Max subscription.