Florence Pugh has revealed that she let her mind go to really dark places to get into character for the A24 horror film Midsommar.

The cult film was a break-out hit for Pugh, who starred as Dani Ardor, a vulnerable college student who travels to Sweden with her boyfriend and his friends to study a midsummer festival – but the heavenly retreat quickly reveals itself to be a bizarre and violent cult.

To get into the role of the traumatised Dani, Pugh had to put some pretty grim thoughts in her head.

“I was so wrapped up in her,” she said in the latest episode of the Off Menu podcast.

“I’d never played someone that was in that much pain before and I would put myself in really s**t situations that maybe other actors don’t need to do but I would just be imagining the worst things.

“Because each day the content would be getting more weird and harder to do, I was putting things in my head that were getting worse and more bleak.

“I think by the end I definitely abused my own self in order to get that performance.”

After months of abusing her own brain like that, you would imagine that Pugh was pretty eager to say goodbye to Dani when production finished – but it wasn’t that easy.

A24

Pugh told hosts James Acaster and Ed Gamble about the day that she left Midsommar to get started on Greta Gerwig’s Little Women.

The actor explained that before she could get cracking on the role of Amy March (can you imagine two characters more different?), she had to say a rather emotional goodbye to Dani.

“I remember looking [out the plane window] and feeling immense guilt because I felt like I’d left her in that field in that state,” Pugh explained.

“Obviously, that’s probably a psychological thing where I felt immense guilt of what I’d put myself through but I definitely felt like I’d left her there in that field to be abused… almost like I’d created this person and then I just left her there to go and do another movie.”

A24

Pugh also touched on what she believes happens to Dani at the end of the film, after she is crowned May Queen and sees her boyfriend Christian offered as a sacrifice.

“I always thought that she survived,” she mused.

“I don’t think she’s probably ever going to come back, because to come back from a psychotic break, you have to have deep, deep treatment and work, that obviously those people don’t [offer her].

“But I do think that they care for her and I don’t think she’s – in that weird, twisted, horrible way – in a place where people actually want her to be there. I do think that she’ll be getting respect and love in a weird way.”

All’s well that end’s well… right?

Sex scenes in films can be an extremely awkward experience.

If you’re watching a film with your parents and an unexpected romp comes on, it’s bound to get more than a little uncomfortable.

But sex scenes can also been tricky for the actors engaging in them too.

Pixabay

Some actors have outright refused to do them, such as Julia Roberts who asked for a love scene to be toned down in the 2009 flick Duplicity.

The Pretty Woman star reportedly said that the steamy material was ‘not really her kind of thing’.

But some actors have agreed to film in the buff and since regretted taking part.

Among their ranks is Juliette Danielle, who is best known for appearing in The Room.

If you’re not familiar with the movie, here’s a quick summary.

Released in 2003, The Room has since gained infamy as the ‘worst film ever made’ thanks to its awful script and laughable acting.

The stars have generally embraced the film‘s cult classic status, but Danielle has regrets about one specific scene.

TPW films

Speaking in a Reddit AMA [Ask Me Anything], she revealed that watching the sex scene left her feeling ‘mortified’.

A particular source of regret was the fact that a rose petal had become stuck to her back during the on-screen romp.

When watched back, it looked as if though she had a scab.

Not very sexy.

Talking of how director Tommy Wiseau – who also appeared as the main character – worked the sex scenes, Danielle said: “[Shooting the sex scenes] was uncomfortable but pretty standard.

“The only difference is that Tommy used ALL the footage … rather than whittling it down to a short sequence like most do.”

Given that the film has earned a certain degree of infamy, you might expect that she regrets the whole experience.

YouTube/Juliette Danielle

But that’s not the case – Danielle said the flick led to her getting other opportunities and she’s made her peace with being ‘Lisa from The Room’.

However, baring all still remains a regret for her: “I did regret making it only because of the nudity thing.”

Since the film’s release twenty years ago, Danielle has kept in touch with fans of the film and attended screenings and fan conventions.

In 2017, she returned to acting in the films Dead Kansas, Ghost Shark 2: Urban Jaws and Till Morning.

The Room, despite being a box office bomb, has inspired books, films and even a video game.

Not bad for the ‘worst film of all time’, I guess.

Among the British actors currently plying their trade on the stage and screen there are some stars who are particularly luminous.

Sir Mark Rylance is certainly one of those, and while it might be a difficult debate to nail down which role is his best, his performance as Thomas Cromwell in Wolf Hall has certainly got to be up there.

Fans of the legendary actor will be happy to hear that there will be a follow-up to the 2015 historical drama in the form of Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light.

Sadly we’ll likely have to wait until the end of 2024 or even the beginning of 2025 for it to arrive on our screens but if it’s anything like its predecessor it ought to be well worth the wait.

While audiences likely know him best from the likes of Wolf Hall, The Trial of the Chicago 7 and The BFG, there’s a film he did in 2001 which he has since said he regrets, one that contains a scene involving unsimulated oral sex.

Studio Canal

The film is Intimacy, in which Rylance plays a bartender who has weekly sex with a woman he doesn’t know (Kerry Fox), and then starts to develop feelings for her.

While Intimacy won Best Film at the Berlin Film Festival that year, there was controversy over the unsimulated scene of oral sex, and Rylance himself has said he wishes he hadn’t made it.

Speaking to the Wall Street Journal about his critically lauded appearance in Wolf Hall in 2015, Rylance also opened up about the 2001 film.

The WSJ reported that Rylance felt he had been taken advantage of by the film’s director, the late Patrice Chéreau who died in 2013.

Rylance said: “It soured me on my life two months, It’s my mistake, but I felt Patrice put undue pressure on me on set to do that.

Hoda Davaine/Dave Benett/Getty Images

“And at that point I didn’t have the confidence as a film actor to say no. Now I think a lot of actors that people say are difficult are actually just being sensible.”

The celebrated actor would give his view on Intimacy again the following year in a web chat for The Guardian.

Replying to a question from a fan who wanted to know Rylance’s view on Intimacy and why he chose to to the movie, the actor wrote: “Intimacy was the most difficult job I’ve ever had.

“Hanif Kureishi’s work and Patrice Chéreau’s words convinced me it was a very true and vital story about the difficulties people face finding intimacy in a big city like London.

“I know Hanif Kureishi’s writing couldn’t have been more intimate and revealing, but I found the making of the film and the subsequent publicity and personal attacks very, very painful. And I wish I hadn’t made it.”