Florence Pugh explains why she’s asked for first acting break in three years

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Oppenheimer star Florence Pugh has revealed the reason she is taking a career break for the first time in three years.

The 28-year-old British actor has had a busy few years, starring in some of the industry’s biggest movies including the Oscar-winning biopic by Christopher Nolan, Dennis Villeneuve’s Dune, A24 fan-favourite Midsommar, the film adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s book Little Women, as well as the less successful Marvel film Black Widow.

She has just recently finished promoting her forthcoming movie We Live In Time at the Toronto Film Festival, a romance in which she stars alongside Andrew Garfield.

News of the break comes after Pugh’s cover story interview with British Vogue in which she also reflected on the “nasty” scrutiny she had experienced while she dated Scrubs star Zach Braff.

“[It’s] the first time ever in my career when I’ve actually asked for a summer break,”she told Vogue. “I’m an absolute work maniac, [but] 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.”

Revealing that she is now in a new relationship – although she did not say with whom – Pugh said she was taking her time unlike her previous partnerships.

“We are figuring what we actually are. And I think for the first time, I’m not allowing myself to go on a roller-coaster,” she said.

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“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.”

The star also explained why she had felt forced to be public about her relationship with Braff.

“I had to be public in the past because people were bullying me and bullying my partner,” she said.

“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 was quick to defend their relationship in December 2019 from criticism over their 21-year age gap.

“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,” the actor continued. “So that was necessary. I needed to talk about it. I think any relationship in this limelight is going to be stressed.”