Florence Pugh Opens Up About the Horror Movie She Regrets Making: “It’s Probably the One Movie That I Wish I Never Did”
Florence Pugh has built a reputation for choosing powerful, emotionally charged roles, but even she admits that not every project has been a win.
During an appearance on The Louis Theroux Podcast, the Oscar-nominated actress revealed there’s one movie from early in her career she wishes she could erase from her résumé: the 2018 Netflix horror film Malevolent.
“It’s probably the one movie that I wish I never did,” Pugh said. “I think everybody has one of those movies.”
Pugh explained that she took the role when she was still finding her footing as an actor and simply needed the paycheck.
“I think it was just a movie that I did when I was younger and I needed money,” she continued. “And I was like, ‘Well, obviously this is great.’ And then I got there and it wasn’t great.”
Malevolent stars Pugh and Ben Lloyd-Hughes as siblings who scam grieving families by faking ghost sightings and pretending to rid their homes of spirits. Of course, things take a terrifying turn when they realize the haunting is all too real.
Despite the interesting setup, the film landed with a thud when it dropped on Netflix, earning a 54% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes and a brutal 18% from audiences.
Luckily for Pugh, her career took off soon after. Within a year of Malevolent, she starred in Fighting With My Family, Midsommar, and Little Women, a trio of performances that established her as one of the most talented actors of her generation.
Reflecting on her experience making Midsommar, Pugh told Theroux that the emotional toll of playing a grief-stricken woman caught in a twisted Swedish cult was immense.
“It really f*cked me up,” she admitted. “I’d never done anything like that before and I was like, ‘OK, well here’s my opportunity. I need to give this a go.’ And I would just basically put myself through hell.”
Even though Malevolent might not be a project she’s proud of, it clearly didn’t hold her back. Pugh’s upcoming slate is nothing short of massive.
She’ll return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Yelena Belova in Avengers: Doomsday and reprise her role as Princess Irulan in Dune: Part Three, two blockbuster films that are set to hit theaters on the same day, December 18, 2026.