In the romance drama We Live in Time (which is streaming on your Max subscription), Florence Pugh portrays a talented chef, Almut, who falls in love with a recent divorcée (portrayed by Andrew Garfield) and raises a daughter together. However, she gets diagnosed with ovarian cancer and allows her partner to shave her head. As a result, Pugh herself really did away with her blonde locks, and she’s explaining why she was nervous about doing it. I wasn’t expecting her explanation, but it totally makes sense.
Previously, Florence Pugh revealed she was offered the chance to wear a bald cap to portray her character in We Live in Time but declined. She felt that to truly act as a character who’s undergoing cancer treatment, it was better to be all in. While Pugh shaving her head was her decision, she admitted to Who What Wear why she was terrified to go through this bold transformation due to a specific matter of uncertainty:
I was terrified ’cause we didn’t know how it would look until it happened. Can you imagine if I’d had [a head shaped like] an egg?!
This is such a good point that I hadn’t considered. When people have heads full of hair, it’s hard to tell what their exact head shape is. With that, it’s hard to tell what it might look like once it’s revealed after a shave. I can’t help but think about what real-life cancer patients have to go through when they start chemo and subsequently experience hair loss. While it’s absolutely far from the most important concern in a situation like that, I would imagine that some patients consider their head shape as well.
Something I love about We Live in Time is how it depicts dignity in the face of illness. Almut’s shave scene could’ve been depicted as being incredibly sad. Instead, there’s beauty and light-heartedness in it, as she allows her partner, Tobias, to shave her head with their young daughter in tow. She embraces this big change with grace and love from her family, overcoming any fear. As Florence Pugh really did have Andrew Garfield shave her head for that memorable scene, I would hope she felt supported knowing she was surrounded by a caring cast and crew.
The Oscar-nominated actress has never been one to hold back on each film performance of hers. Pugh continued to talk about what she looks for in future roles and the importance of giving it her all:
I feel like I’ve always had a good understanding of what makes me tick. In my mind, I definitely have a clock of understanding what I know I still have to show and when I want to show it. So I know of things and characters and ways that I want to perform for like the next 10 to 15 years. It’s just about finding the right one that I can associate that with.
Florence Pugh is certainly no slouch. She wasn’t afraid to put herself “in really shit situations” to portray heart-wrenching trauma in Midsommar or accomplish an insane base jump for Thunderbolts*. It appears Pugh is willing to do whatever it takes to provide an authentic portrayal of her characters, and I’m all for it!
I hope Pugh knows that her decision to shave her head wasn’t in vain, given how important it proved to be for We Live in Time. In addition, she later proved she could pull off her new look with style. After displaying her shaved look for her partnership with Tiffany, which later grew into a punk blonde hairdo at the Lotus Car event, it’s clear the talented star can sport any hairstyle she chooses. You can watch light up the screen again with her 2025 movie release, Thunderbolts*, which is in theaters now.