Though early audiences and reviewers alike fawned over John Crowley’s We Live in Time, star Florence Pugh says those watching aren’t the only ones affected. The actress revealed this week that the film pushed her to be more active in finding love in her own life.
“Watching this movie makes me want to be active in my decisions and actually live,” Pugh, who stars in We Live in Time alongside Andrew Garfield, told British Vogue.
The romance drama sees Pugh and Garfield as a modern British couple facing a medical crisis. The Hollywood Reporter‘s Michael Rechtshaffen wrote that the movie “has such an unflinchingly honest take on mortality” that also feels “transcendently life-affirming,” with “achingly palpable, playful chemistry” from the two leads.
“I was at the right age for this movie to land,” 28-year-old Pugh added. “I was going through a lot of weird stuff with relationships last year, and I think part of the story is to not be passive, is not to let things wash over you. I want to go and find love, and I want to have babies.”
Pugh added that the movie offered a chance to reflect on how she divides her time, and how much of her life goes by at work.
“I’m an absolute work maniac,” she said. “I can see I’m exhausted. I suddenly woke up last year, and I was like, ‘I hate how much of my life I’ve missed.’ Yes, I want to have a career forever, but that’s not going to happen if I work myself into the ground.”
In the film, Pugh’s character shaves her head, which the actress did to her real hair while filming in 2023 (she debuted the style shortly after). “For any actor taking a role like this, it is completely important that you see her head, and we see her shaving it – it was just always a no-brainer,” Pugh said of the decision, adding that the experience “was really bizarre. My head was so sensitive and so many people were trying to touch it, and it was so alive. My body went into a bit of trauma from it. I was cold all the time.”
The transformation ended up being rather emotional and went much deeper than simply something she did for work. “I was going through so many [aesthetic] iterations when I was also going through life decisions,” she said. “I was like, ‘Cool, well I don’t look like me. I’m changed. I’m changing.’ Looking back on that summer, I was growing into a new thing.”
Throughout the profile, Pugh spoke candidly about her personal life, including sharing some reflections on her three-year relationship with Zach Braff, which garnered significant media attention.
“Mine and Zach’s relationship was actually quite private until it was nasty, and I could see the toll that it was taking on him and us and our families,” Pugh said. “And that’s when I spoke out. I think for anyone I’m with, I want to protect them. It’s not nice knowing that people are saying the worst things I’ve ever read about someone that I love. So that was necessary. I needed to talk about it. I think any relationship in this limelight is going to be stressed.”
Pugh and Braff dated from 2019 to 2022. She said she is in a new relationship now, though did not say with whom.
“Something that I resonate with is that I believe that if magic is real, then it’s falling in love,” she said. “And I am someone that loves falling in love. I love looking after people. I love caring for people. I love the feeling of someone being there. I love knowing that someone is thinking about me and someone cares for me in the same way that I’m thinking about caring for them. I think in this portion of my life, I’m trying to make sure that I’m making all the right decisions so that I can have the thing that I want… which is safety, family, a home and security.”
Pugh said she and the mystery partner “are figuring what we actually are,” and that “I think for the first time, I’m not allowing myself to go on a roller-coaster. I’m allowing myself to take time to let something evolve and let it be completely real to its core, as opposed to racing into that.”
