Florence Pugh Almost Had A Viral Moment At The Oscars

Florence Pugh made her professional acting debut in 2014. Her breakout role, in period-piece Lady Macbeth, came two years later; and by 2020, she was an Oscar nominee and future-Marvel Cinematic Universe star. She would be a current-Marvel Cinematic Universe star, if Black Widow‘s release hadn’t been pushed back from May 1 to November 6, due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. In a new interview with Elle UK, Pugh discussed her choice to join the MCU after mostly starring in low-budget indies.

“When you think of Marvel, it’s big and daunting. Especially being a relatively small actor to look at it and go, ‘Oh! I’m going to be a part of this,’ that’s a big decision,” she said. Pugh was nervous to make her San Diego Comic-Con debut (“I was scared because my Russian accent was going to be out there and I didn’t know what it sounded like”), but it helped that Scarlett Johansson, who’s been doing this for years, was also anxious:

“We both stood there and I instantly had clammy, sweaty hands. Scarlett gave me her hand and we squeezed each other, and she also had clammy hands! And then I was like, oh, this never gets old. This is just as powerful [for you] and you’re their legend.”

Comic-Con was an odd experience for Pugh (it’s odd for everyone, tbh), but it wasn’t as “so amazing, so strange, so weird” as the Oscars, which she attended for the first time this year. The Little Women actress almost had a potential-viral moment when “everyone stood up to applaud Martin Scorsese” and she had “just got out a bag of M&Ms. As we all got up, a camera popped right in my face and I was waving this bag of M&Ms about. So I just had to drop it… on the floor. I thought, I can’t be the girl who’s eating M&Ms while giving Martin a standing ovation.” You can, Pugh. You can. What do you think the first “M” in M&Ms stands for? (If it’s anything other than “Marty,” please don’t correct me.)