Backstage With… Florence Pugh and Zach Braff on their new movie A Good Person

Florence Pugh says the concept to chop off her hair for her newest movie was impressed by her personal method of coping with psychological well being points when she was youthful.

In A Good Person the star performs a lady who turns into hooked on painkillers following a tragedy.

While battling what she’s going by means of, her character Allison cuts her hair and Pugh instructed Sky News’ movie and TV podcast Backstage that the concept to try this got here from her personal lived expertise.

“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 defined.

“I used to be simply going by means of that traditional teenage bout of melancholy the place you are not fairly positive that you simply’re depressed, so I simply purchased random issues and tried to fast repair myself, like simply to purchase issues that will stick on me and possibly I’d really feel higher.

“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 all the time love getting into a task the place I haven’t got to care about being digital camera lovely or something like that, I like not having the ability to have to consider that.”

While Pugh’s character is an addict, she’s additionally likeable and relatable – with the movie steering clear from a stereotypical portrayal of a drug person.

The actress says it was essential – although not straightforward – for her to get the half proper.

“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 individuals that helped us, helped paint an thought of what it’s to be like at that low and the way far you must get and the way far you must go to truly realise you need assistance.

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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 nonetheless be likeable and frustratingly cussed. And why can we nonetheless need her to get higher even after she’s executed all that she’s executed, and that was tough.

“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 movie was written for Pugh by her former associate Zach Braff – who additionally directs – who she dated for 3 years.

She admits that it may need been onerous to recommend adjustments or push again in the event that they did not have the historical past 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 everyone on set, not simply me – he wrote the movie for me, however each actor and each character had the flexibility to indicate up on the day they had been working and imply one thing, and in the event that they wanted to alter one thing, they’re greater than welcome to carry it to mild.”

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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 onerous for me to put in writing a script, they do not come simply to me.

“I wish I could be more prolific, but I have to let inspiration strike, so it’s hard.

“But this got here to me in the course of the pandemic and definitely in the course of the lockdown I had the time and I had no excuse – I ran out of excuses throughout lockdown, the universe locked us all in our homes and I had no alternative.”

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 believe that is definitely what one does as an actor every single day that they are working.”

The lack of his good friend to COVID and the lockdown giving Braff the time and house to put in writing are simply two methods during which the pandemic impacted the movie.

While A Good Person focuses on one character’s restoration, Braff says it is actually taking a look at how we have all coped the previous 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 imply, the movie’s about recovering from tragedy and trauma, and I believe for those who zoom out, I hope that audiences will see it is also about recovering from that have that all of us went by means of – this insane pandemic that I do not assume we are able to all even course of simply but.

“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 additionally stars Morgan Freeman, is out now on Sky Cinema.

Hear our overview on the most recent episode of Backstage – the movie and TV podcast from Sky News.