From quarantine chef to Scarlett Johansson’s bestie, Miss Flo has played many roles in real life, but today I’ll be focusing on her film and TV roles. I watched her filmography, have mulled over the performances, and have them ranked here for you. (Unfortunately, Dune 2 isn’t out yet, but rest assured that I will be updating to include it upon its release.) A few quick ground rules: 1) I’m ranking these based solely on Florence Pugh’s performance and NOT the movie as a whole. So Harry Style’s acting and Louisa May Alcott’s classic story will not be factored in and 2) SPOILERS ABOUND! Do not read if you don’t want any of Florence Pugh’s movies, including The Wonder, Black Widow, or Don’t Worry Darling, spoiled for you. So let’s charge off across the field and get to this ranking. Florence Pugh’s Yelena, the younger sister of Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow, became the breakout star of the film. She then reprised the role (as Marvel actors tend to do) in the Disney+ series about Black Widow’s old bestie, Hawkeye. Yelena is definitely playing third fiddle here to Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye and Hailee Steinfeld’s Kate Bishop, but Pugh brings her charm and dry wit to the role. Because she only pops up at the tail end of the series to try and kill Hawkeye (she is a trained assassin after all), Florence Pugh doesn’t get a ton of screen time, but she steals several scenes out from under the show’s leads in her thick Russian accent. And one slot higher, we have the original Yelena appearance. While most would agree that Black Widow is a mid-tier Marvel film, Florence Pugh’s performance stands out as one of the best in the MCU (and 2022 films in general, IMHO). Pugh provides the comic relief, razzing her older sister for her signature fight stances and wardrobe choices. She also keeps up with Scar Jo in the stunts department, kicking ass in fight scenes, chase sequences, and aerial acrobatics. We also see Pugh flex her signature dramatic acting chops as she reunites with her estranged sister and then must say goodbye to her again at the end of the film, something that carries extra resonance with Avengers: Endgame viewers who know Black Widow will sacrifice herself. We most definitely need a Yelena feature stat. Unfortunately for Olivia Wilde’s follow-up to Booksmart, the press tour of Don’t Worry Darling far surpasses the actual movie when it comes to drama and intrigue. The film is fine, and Harry Styles is not necessarily bad in it (his role is fairly small), but the one outstanding facet is, of course, Miss Flo’s acting. Playing a woman trapped in a cult-like 1950s village controlled by men, she gets to be fun, flirty, and perky before slowly descending into madness. As in Lady Macbeth, we see her play unhinged, but this provides her with a bit more range. Also, she gets to wrap her own head in saran wrap, sprint through the desert, and receive oral sex from Harry Styles, so there’s some fun physicality here that we haven’t seen from Pugh yet on this list.
