18 Incredible TV Shows and Movies Featuring Florence Pugh
- Pugh has also appeared in films like "Midsommar," "Little Women," and "Black Widow," showcasing her versatility as an actress.
It seems like Florence Pugh has been on our screens forever, portraying nuanced and outspoken women in several of her credits. But in reality, the British talent has only been active (and prolific) as an actress in Hollywood for the past decade.
Here are 18 of the most incredible TV shows and movies you need to see, prominently featuring one of the world's top rising stars.
1. The Falling (2014)
Image Credit: BBC Films/BFI/Metrodome UK.
Florence Pugh's film debut, starring opposite Game of Thrones alum Maisie Williams, was a knockout with critics and a festival favorite. The Falling cemented Pugh as an up-and-comer in Hollywood.
Pugh plays Williams' onscreen BFF, Abbie Mortimer, who begins to have mysterious fainting spells after her attempt to abort a pregnancy. Williams' Lydia soon follows suit. However, one of the pair dies after those fainting spells, while the other starts an epidemic of fainting episodes at their all-girls school.
The movie approaches mass hysteria and psychogenic contagion with an enrapturing blend of melodrama and supernatural elements while exploring female friendship and sexuality. Needless to say, Pugh started off her career with a bang in The Falling .
Critic's Score: 78% on the Tomatometer
Where to Watch: Philo
2. Marcella (2016)
Image Credit: Buccaneer Media/Amber Entertainment/ITV/Netflix.
In Marcella , a three-season British Nordic noir detective series that performed well on Netflix during its run, Pugh plays the recurring character Cara Thomas, a sex worker with a criminal streak, in the show's first installment. The titular Marcella is portrayed by Anna Friel, a former London detective who returns to work and cracks long-deemed-cold cases after her husband abruptly leaves her 15 years into their marriage.
In the show, Marcella takes down serial killers and a wealthy crime family, all while trying to salvage her family and get her mental health in check.
Critic's Score: 70% on the Tomatometer
Where to Watch: Netflix
3. Lady Macbeth (2016)
Image Credit: Altitude Film Entertainment/BFI/BBC Films.
Although it may seem connected to William Shakespeare's play Macbeth , the gripping drama Lady Macbeth is actually an adaptation of the 1865 novella Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District by Nikolai Leskov. Pugh plays the Lady Macbeth in question in this project, Katherine Lester, which also happens to be her first leading role in a film.
The story follows Lester, who becomes bitter about her marriage to a man twice her age, Alexander (Paul Hilton), and begins making decisions that become increasingly darker to claw her way out of her current marital circumstances.
Critic's Score: 89% on the Tomatometer
Where to Watch: Starz
4. King Lear (2018)
Image Credit: BBC Two.
You may know the Bard's play "King Lear," but you've likely never seen the story told like this before.
This particular edition dropped in 2018 and produced for BBC Two is set in a highly-militarized version of 21st-century London, with Sir Anthony Hopkins endeavoring as the titular Lear, Dame Emma Thompson as Goneril, and Florence Pugh as the youngest of Lear's daughters, Cordelia.
Critic's Score: 91% on the Tomatometer
Where to Watch: Amazon Prime Video
5. Malevolent (2018)
Image Credit: Netflix.
Malevolent is a swift film (less than an hour and a half long) about a brother-and-sister pair of paranormal scam artists that wind up taking on more than they've bargained for (psychologically, and perhaps even spiritually) during an elaborate poltergeist con. Florence Pugh plays the sister of the duo, Angela, and Ben Lloyd-Hughes plays the brother, Jackson. T
The horror movie is a global project — directed by Icelandic filmmaker Olaf de Fleur Johannesson, adapted from a screenplay and novel by two Americans (Ben Ketai and Eva Konstantopolous, respectively), starring an ensemble cast made up of mostly British actors, and set in Scotland.
Critic's Score:54% on the Tomatometer
Where to Watch:Netflix
6. Outlaw King (2018)
Image Credit: Sigma Films/Anonymous Content/Netflix.
This historical drama may have passed your radar, but Outlaw King not only includes Florence Pugh, it also features Chris Pine (who Pugh would later co-star with in Don't Worry Darling ) and Aaron Taylor-Johnson (best known for starring in the satirical superhero film Kick-Ass ).
The action film, based on actual events, is set in the 14th-century during the Scottish Wars of Independence. In it, Pugh portrays Elizabeth de Burgh, the wife and champion of Robert the Bruce (Pine), who despite her noble English lineage, becomes a loud and loyal sympathizer of Scotland.
Critic's Score:63% on the Tomatometer
Where to Watch:Netflix
7. The Little Drummer Girl (2018)
Image Credit: BBC Studios.
Contemporary filmmaking legend Park Chan-wook ( Oldboy, Lady Vengeance, The Handmaiden, Decision to Leave ), who is best known for directing thrilling crime mysteries, took a shot at adapting the British novel The Little Drummer Girl for an English-speaking audience and succeeded. The highly-rated and critically acclaimed drama stars Florence Pugh as an aspiring British actress, who is recruited by Mossad in the late 70s to infiltrate a Palestinian terrorist organization.
The six-episode limited series has a stacked cast of regarded British and international stars supporting Pugh, including Michael Shannon, Alexander Skarsgård, Michael Moshonov, Simona Brown, Clare Holman, and Charles Dance.
Critic's Score:95% on the Tomatometer
Where to Watch: Sling TV
8. Fighting with My Family (2019)
Image Credit: MGM/Lionsgate/Film 4/Seven Buck Productions/WWE Studios.
This lesser-known Florence Pugh headliner should absolutely be on your watchlist.
In Fighting with My Family, Pugh tackles the true-life journey of WWE professional wrestler Saraya "Paige" Knight, tracing her childhood in Norwich, to adopting her Charmed- inspired stage name, to eventually becoming a wrestling superstar.
The cast is supported by Game of Thrones alum Lena Headey, Shaun of the Dead comedic actor Nick Frost, Slow Horses star Jack Lowden, 2000s bro-comedy guru Vince Vaugh, and WWE legend and fellow actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.
Critic's Score: 93% on the Tomatometer
Where to Watch: Tubi
9. Midsommar (2019)
Image Credit: A24.
This atmospheric Ari Aster horror became the basis of many a Halloween costume in 2019. Midsommar may have loads of florals and pastels in its aesthetics, set against the surreally beautiful backdrop of a Swedish summer, but don't be fooled by its surface-level looks.
The film, starring Florence Pugh, is a compelling and tense exploration of healing and self-discovery amidst bizarre circumstances and a cultish village. It was perhaps this indie movie, above all of Pugh's other performances, that really propelled her in the zeitgeist as an A-lister and a must-watch actress in Hollywood.
Critic's Score: 83% on the Tomatometer
Where to Watch: Max
10. Little Women (2019)
Image Credit: Sony Pictures Releasing.
Before Barbie , filmmaker Greta Gerwig became a critical darling with her big screen adaptation of the beloved Louisa May Alcott book, Little Women .
In it, Florence Pugh plays the youngest March sister, Amy March, who at first comes across to narrator/older sister Jo (Saoirse Ronan) as a brat. But Amy, like all of her sisters, matures and comes into her own, pursuing her artistic sensibilities as well as the heart of the dashing boy-next-door Laurie (Timothée Chalamet).
Critic's Score: 95% on the Tomatometer
Where to Watch: Hulu
11. Black Widow (2021)
Image Credit: Marvel Studios/Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
Florence Pugh takes on Marvel alongside co-star Scarlett Johansson in Black Widow , wherein she introduces the character of Yelena Belova to the MCU fold. Belova, a spy and an anti-hero, is an ally of Natasha Romanoff and eventually her predecessor, claiming the Black Widow mantle for herself after Romanoff's death.
Pugh's Belova is set to be a staple of future Marvel flicks as well.
Critic's Score: 79% on the Tomatometer
Where to Watch: Disney+
12. Hawkeye (2021)
Image Credit: Marvel Studios.
Florence Pugh reprises her Marvel Cinematic Universe role as Yelena Belova in this limited series.
The show focuses on the exploits of the Hawkeyes (Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton and Hailee Steinfeld as Kate Bishop), as well as some of the overlaps between Avenger Hawkeye's street-level superhero crime-fighting and those of the vigilante Daredevil. The series serves not only as a standalone spinoff of Black Widow , but also as a door to numerous other MCU projects in the works, including Daredevil: Born Again and Thunderbolts*.
Critic's Score: 92% on the Tomatometer
Where to Watch: Disney+
13. Don't Worry Darling (2022)
Image Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures.
The buzziest film of 2023, Don't Worry Darling , features the talents of Florence Pugh and Chris Pine alongside Gemma Chan, KiKi Layne, Nick Kroll, English pop star Harry Styles and director/producer Olivia Wilde.
The Stepford Wives- esque tale centers on the utopian, isolated desert community of "Victory," during what appears to be the 1950s. But nothing is at it appears in Don't Worry Darling , and although critics razed the film for being a poor imitation of its obvious cinematic muse, Pugh plays the role of a housewife fooled — then enlightened and subsequently enraged — with such fierceness it's hard to look away (even if most of the script is so-so).
Critic's Score: 38% on the Tomatometer
Where to Watch: Amazon Prime Video
14. The Wonder (2022)
Image Credit: Aidan Monaghan/Netflix.
The Wonder is a simultaneously disconcerting and fascinating 2022 psychological period drama set in 1862 Ireland (after The Great Famine), directed by Sebastián Lelio and based on the novel of the same name by Emma Donoghue.
In the Netflix movie, Florence Pugh plays lead Lib Wright, an English nurse who is tasked to observe an 11-year-old girl who claims that she can get away with not eating for months and be miraculously healthy by surviving on manna from heaven. The Wonder is an engrossing story about science versus faith.
Critic's Score: 85% on the Tomatometer
Where to Watch: Netflix
15. A Good Person (2023)
Image Credit: Killer Films/Elevation Pictures/MGM.
Back when director/writer/producer Zach Braff and Florence Pugh were a longtime item, he wrote her a part in A Good Person .
Although critics weren't wild about the flick, Pugh does a wonderful job depicting a woman struggling to accept her role in an accident that changes the course of her life and the lives of her loved ones, turning to opioids to numb the pain of her grief.
Critic's Score:58% on the Tomatometer
Where to Watch: MGM+
16. Oppenheimer (2023)
Image Credit: Syncopy Inc./Atlas Entertainment/Universal Pictures.
Although Florence Pugh's screen time in Oppenheimer is relatively short compared to its intense 180-minute runtime, her depiction of the true-life J. Robert Oppenheimer's romantic interest, the brilliant but turbulent Jean Tatlock, is impactful.
Pugh deftly handles their brief but torrid affair with dexterity, characterizing Tatlock as a mesmerizing psychiatrist and political activist with a mind that rivaled Oppenheimer's, but such a mind ultimately proves to be her downfall (or, at least, that's what Christopher Nolan's critically acclaimed movie suggests).
Critic's Score: 93% on the Tomatometer
Where to Watch: Amazon Prime Video
17. Dune: Part Two (2024)
Image Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures.
Zendaya and Timothée Chalamet may have been the faces of Dune, but in Dune: Part Two, Florence Pugh joins the talented ensemble cast of this complex sci-fi epic and changes the plot's course.
While audiences rooted for Zendaya and Chalamet's character's love story, it seems like director Denis Villeneuve wanted to keep things canon and aligned with author Frank Herbert's saga, wedging Pugh's Princess Irulan Corrino in between the couple.
Critic's Score: 92% on the Tomatometer
Where to Watch: Max
18. We Live in Time (2024)
Image Credit: A24/StudioCanal.
This nonlinear narrative is an indie tearjerker.
In it, Hollywood heartthrobs Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield play a couple that is star-crossed from nearly the start, but let their passion for each other play out over the course of a decade in spite of the threat of ovarian cancer lingering close behind.
Critic's Score: 78% on the Tomatometer
Where to Watch: Apple TV
