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Florence Pugh’s portrayal of Dani in Midsommar remains one of the most extraordinary depictions of grief ever seen on screen.
But the emotional toll it took to bring those feelings of despair to life is not something Pugh wants to take on again.
“I abused myself”
When visiting the “The Louis Theroux Podcast” The actress spoke about how “terribly real” the emotions she portrayed in the Ari Aster-directed film were, leading to a six-month depression.
In the film, audiences witness Dani experiencing a tragic family trauma that includes murder and suicide. “The character is in such a terrible state in her life and is constantly on the verge of a panic attack,” Pugh said in the new interview, explaining that she’s “never experienced anything like that.”
“That’s why I really got into it,” she continued. “At first I just imagined getting the news that one of my siblings had died. And then towards the middle of filming, it was like actually having to imagine the coffins. And towards the end of filming, I actually went to my whole family’s funeral.” Pugh said she went “through hell” because she had never done anything like this before.
Hardly any time to relax
After filming “Midsommar” was completed, Pugh traveled to Boston to film Greta Gerwig’s “Little Women,” with only three days off in between. As she sat on the plane leaving Budapest, where “Midsommar” was filmed, the actress began to cry because she felt like she had left Dani behind to “figure out how to live the rest of her life.”
“My mind obviously felt sorry for myself for abusing myself and manipulating my own emotions to perform,” Pugh said. “I just can’t push myself like that because it has a domino effect. I think that made me sad for about six months afterward.”
Intensive collaboration with Ari Aster
Although the film was one of the most mentally demanding projects Pugh has ever undertaken, the actress has praised Aster – who previously gained attention with Hereditary – in the past.
In a 2023 interview with The New York Times, Pugh described the director as “weird in a crazy, brilliant way.” She recalled: “He had therapy sessions with Jack [Reynor, ihrem Co-Star] and me in our roles. Ari was our therapist and asked us questions. I find something like that quite difficult.”