Florence Pugh says the idea to cut off her hair for her latest film was inspired by her own way of dealing with mental health issues when she was younger.
In A Good Person the star plays a woman who becomes addicted to painkillers following a tragedy.
While struggling with what she’s going through, her character Allison cuts her hair and Pugh told Sky News’ film and TV podcast Backstage that the idea to do that came from her own lived experience.
“I think we have this awful nature, well, I do sometimes, that when things are going wrong, I just, like, chop bits of myself off, and that idea actually came from me when I was younger,” she explained.
“I was just going through that classic teenage bout of depression where you’re not quite sure that you’re depressed, so I just bought random things and tried to quick fix myself, like just to buy things that would stick on me and maybe I’d feel better.
“And so that was an idea that I was saying, ‘Well, what if she just chops off a piece of her for no reason other than just trying to fix something?’ And then what that did is it made this whole character not care anymore and have hair that is ridiculous, and I loved that.
“I always love stepping into a role where I don’t have to care about being camera beautiful or anything like that, I love not being able to have to think about that.”
While Pugh’s character is an addict, she’s also likeable and relatable – with the film steering clear from a stereotypical portrayal of a drug user.
The actress says it was important – though not easy – for her to get the part right.
“I think we forget that just because someone is in this awful space doesn’t mean that they’re still not charming or they’re still not able to make you love them or make you want to help them – that is the hardest thing about being in that situation.
“We spoke to many people that helped us, helped paint an idea of what it is to be like at that low and how far you have to get and how far you have to go to actually realise you need help.
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“I think having all of those amazing characters around her, desperately trying to help her, make it real, make it harder, make it unbelievable that she can’t kick it – and then that also helps me be able to kind of figure out an arc of how do I pull this all the way through?
“That she has to still be likeable and frustratingly stubborn. And why do we still want her to get better even after she’s done all that she’s done, and that was tricky.
“Of course, it’s so hard doing something like this because you never want to offend anyone, you don’t want to hurt anyone, you want to get it right – you end up battering yourself a little bit as well – but I’m really proud of it, I’m really proud of this work.”
The film was written for Pugh by her former partner Zach Braff – who also directs – who she dated for three years.
She admits that it might have been hard to suggest changes or push back if they didn’t have the history that they do.
“I’m sure it would be if it was maybe someone that didn’t know me so well and I didn’t know them so well.
“There were things in the original script that I’d be like, ‘I don’t think it would…’ or ‘That, I’d find a bit hard to say’ or ‘Do you mind if I give a stab at this?’ and [Braff] was completely cool with that and I think because he does know me so well and knows how I perform and knows what he wanted from me as a performer it meant that I could also then ask the same of him, and that was an amazing experience to have.
“It was very free for everybody on set, not just me – he wrote the film for me, but every actor and every character had the ability to show up on the day they were working and mean something, and if they needed to change something, they’re more than welcome to bring it to light.”
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A Good Person is Braff’s third film as writer-director, following 2004’s Garden State and 2014’s Wish I Was Here.
He told Sky News’ Backstage Podcast he would like to do more – but it’s not as simple as just wanting to.
“It’s very hard for me to write a script, they don’t come easily to me.
“I wish I could be more prolific, but I have to let inspiration strike, so it’s hard.
“But this came to me during the pandemic and certainly during the lockdown I had the time and I had no excuse – I ran out of excuses during lockdown, the universe locked us all in our houses and I had no choice.”
The film looks at tragedy, grief and how people respond to trauma and Braff has been open about it being inspired by his own experiences – including losing a good friend to COVID-19.
He acknowledges it’s exposing to pour himself in to the film.
“What’s more vulnerable than writing an original screenplay and saying, ‘This is the pain that I’ve had, these are my wounds, basically’, but I think that’s what hopefully good art is, in any form – an artist having the courage to be vulnerable for an audience.
“I think that’s certainly what one does as an actor every day that they’re working.”
The loss of his friend to COVID and the lockdown giving Braff the time and space to write are just two ways in which the pandemic impacted the film.
While A Good Person focuses on one character’s recovery, Braff says it’s really looking at how we’ve all coped the past few years.
“I think that one of the things that people might see in this film is that it’s also in the macro about recovering.
“I mean, the film’s about recovering from tragedy and trauma, and I think if you zoom out, I hope that audiences will see it’s also about recovering from that experience that we all went through – this insane pandemic that I don’t think we can all even process just yet.
“We’re just moving on but not really looking at the whole thing, and I think there’s also that – it’s about coming out of this horrible time.”
A Good Person, which also stars Morgan Freeman, is out now on Sky Cinema.
Hear our review on the latest episode of Backstage – the film and TV podcast from Sky News.