Florence Pugh has been gracing our screens for years now, but there is one particular movie that proved early on in her career that she was destined to be an absolute star.
That movie is Lady Macbeth, and it's airing tonight (September 6) on BBC Two at 11.05pm if you've never seen it – or if you fancy a rewatch.
Don't worry if you don't want to stay up late to watch it as the movie will be available to watch on BBC iPlayer shortly after rewatch. If you just can't wait to watch it, it's also available to watch now on Netflix UK.
After making her debut in The Falling alongside Maisie Williams, Pugh was cast as a young woman rebelling against the rules of 19th century's polite society, in a movie where Wuthering Heights meets Lady Chatterley's Lover.
It was the start of a legacy of fascinating characters, from Dani in Ari Aster's Midsommar to Amy in Greta Gerwig's Little Women, and a breakthrough role that left viewers astonished.
According to Pugh, it's also the role that shaped her most as an actress.
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"Lady Macbeth was probably the thing that kicked me into what it was that I wanted to make and what it was that I wanted to be," she said in an exclusive interview with Digital Spy.
Based on Nikolai Leskov's 1865 book Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (no, this is not an adaptation of William Shakespeare's Macbeth), the movie follows Katherine, a young woman trapped in an unhappy, arranged marriage.
Set in 19th century rural England, Katherine was sold off for marriage along with a piece of land, but she quickly rebels against the authority of her father-in-law Boris (Christopher Fairbank) and the evident hatred of her often absent husband Alexander (Paul Hilton).
Despite being ordered repeatedly to stay indoors with her book of prayers, Katherine roams around the natural windy exteriors, finds friendship among servants like Anna (Naomi Ackie) and begins a passionate affair with Sebastian (Persuasion's Cosmo Jarvis).
Adapted by screenwriter Alice Birch (who also adapted The End We Start From), William Oldroyd's movie is an exploration of power dynamics, class privilege and societal oppression of women, as the rules of the patriarchy are challenged from the inside out by an unwilling bride.
Now, Katherine is no heroine.
Lady Macbeth might look like it's going down the romantic route, channeling the desperate longing of the Brönte sisters' books and exploring forbidden love under strict societal rules, but this story is way more wicked than that.
Katherine is a bored, wealthy white woman playing a game of power.
Her journey starts as a feminist one-woman rebellion, but it evolves in fascinatingly awful ways, turning the protagonist into a multilayered character prone to violence and to selfishly use the innocents around her. Her complicated relationship with Anna is one of the most interesting aspects of the story.
Katherine can be as heartless as the noble men she is rebelling against, and that gives Florence Pugh more complexities to play with. Her performance is captivating, foreshadowing what the then 20-year-old actress was meant to become in today's movie landscape.
Flash forward to today – Pugh was part of last year's big Oscar winner Oppenheimer (even if her character posed some issues) and gave her voice to Kiriko in the English dub of Hayao Miyazaki's The Boy and The Heron, which also won an Oscar.
Pugh was back on the big screen earlier this year with Dune: Part Two as Princess Irulan, which could also trouble the Oscars next year, and she will next be seen alongside Andrew Garfield in new British movie We Live in Time.
Lady Macbeth airs tonight (September 6) at 11.05pm on BBC Two. It will be available to watch on BBC iPlayer shortly after broadcast.
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Mireia (she/her) has been working as a movie and TV journalist for over eight years. Based in the UK, she is a former deputy movies editor at Digital Spy, and previously worked for the Spanish magazine Fotogramas. Mireia's work has been published in other outlets such as Esquire and Elle in Spain, and WeLoveCinema and GamesRadar+ in the UK. She is also a published author, having written the essay Biblioteca Studio Ghibli: Nicky, la aprendiz de bruja about Hayao Miyazaki's Kiki's Delivery Service.
During her years as a freelance journalist and film critic, Mireia has covered festivals around the world and has interviewed high-profile talents such as Kristen Stewart, Ryan Gosling, Jake Gyllenhaal and many more. She's also taken part in juries such as the FIPRESCI jury at Venice Film Festival and the short film jury at Kingston International Film Festival in London. LinkedIn
