Pugh makes carrying that load look easy as she oscillates between muted moments and unhinged ones. And though she’s from Oxford, her American accent is also seamless. Pugh has always loved dialect work; as a child she reveled in impersonating her Yorkshire-born grandfather. (Accent-wise, think Sean Bean-esque.) “I used to basically take the mickey out of him,” Pugh said. “I would be like”—and here, she brings out the accent—“‘Oh, gram, get me a cup of tea! Get me a cup of tea and a cigar!’ I’d be like six, seven years old, just ripping into him.”

She chuckled at the memory of Tiny Florence, an actor in training now on the cusp of a breakthrough year. Her talent first began attracting serious attention after the 2016 period piece Lady Macbeth, skillfully directed by William Oldroyd. That film stars Pugh as Katherine, a wan, early-19th-century housewife who is slowly overtaken by her darker, more vivacious nature.

In person Pugh is smiley and friendly—the type to immediately seize upon your earrings, ply you with pleasant queries about them, and send you off with an armful of compliments. The actor has been compared to a young Kate Winslet; she has expressive eyes and a heart-shaped face, all her features in panoramic view. Just a few years into her career, she’s already endeared herself to some of the biggest stars in Hollywood—like Dwayne Johnson, whom she starred alongside in the wrestling dramedy Fighting with My Family, and Emma Thompson, whom she worked with in King Lear. “I love her,” Pugh gushed of the legendary British actor. “I don’t see her that often, but whenever I do, it’s like, Oh my goodness, I need you to tell me how to live my life.”

She feels similarly about her colleagues in this December’s feverishly anticipated Little Women adaptation—including Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, and Eliza Scanlen—directed by Greta Gerwig. (Pugh plays spoiled Amy March.)

“She’s like the goofy big sister that everybody wants,” Pugh said of Gerwig. “She’s amazing, and she’s so bright, and so wonderfully weird. And it was just really wonderful to work with someone who had such a different way of seeing dialogue and scripts and timing.” Pugh spent equally as much time praising Laura Dern, who plays Marmee in the film. “Laura Dern is like the hippie mom that everybody wants,” she said. “You say one sentence of your problem, she’s like, ‘Oh, you need to get rid of them.’ Or like, ‘Oh, you should have that chocolate bar.’”

But Pugh was slightly less talkative when the topic turns to Black Widow star Scarlett Johansson. Though she’s reportedly costarring in the upcoming Marvel spin-off film, a stand-alone focused on Johansson’s superhero character, Pugh was mum about the movie—understandable, since even Johansson can neither confirm nor deny its existence. But Pugh did feel safe confirming that she has at least met Johansson, who is “so wicked.” Regardless of whether she’s in this movie (which she is), Pugh said, she’s just happy that it’s being made at all.

“Black Widow is so needed,” she said. “Every one of Black Widow’s fans have been so desperate for it. This story needs to be made. Her story needs to be glorified, and I think everybody’s just ready for it. Whether or not I’m attached, I’m excited to watch it. It’s about women, and it’s got an amazing female director, and there’s this whole story line that hasn’t been done before. And I think people are pumped for it, so I will say that. It’s very exciting for the Marvel Universe. And if I am part of it, if I’m not part of it—God, what a lucky girl.”

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