Florence Pugh says ‘East of Eden’ role helped her grow as an actress

Florence Pugh says playing Cathy Ames in ‘East of Eden’ helped her grow as an actress and expand creatively. She praised writer Zoe Kazan’s invitation to collaborate and said exploring Cathy’s character was both exciting and daunting for her.

Los Angeles: Hollywood actress Florence Pugh has spoken highly of her character in ‘East of Eden’, and credited the part for allowing her to diversify her horizon as an actress.

The 30-year-old actress essays the role of Cathy Ames in a limited series adaptation of John Steinbeck’s novel ‘East of Eden’. She has said that she relishes the role, as it’s allowed her “to be bigger and better”.

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Florence told Netflix’s Tudum “When I read the script (in) 2020, I was already thinking about roles that I would want to play in the future and roles that would require for me to grow up, to better my craft, to allow me to expand”.

The new series is written and executive produced by Zoe Kazan, and Florence loved the experience of working with her on the project.

She further mentioned, “During that time, this fell in my lap, via an email with an invite from Zoe saying, ‘Can you make this with me? Not only can you act for me, but can you be on this creative journey with me?’ That was such an invitation, just to allow myself to be bigger and better and (to be) invited into a conversation to create something from the ground up, (it was a) huge confidence boost”.

“It was all of these elements, it was playing a fantastic character and also showing up for myself as a performer and a creative behind the scenes. That’s why I wanted to do it. Then you just start unpicking the layers of Cathy and who she becomes, and why does she become that way? Why does she make these decisions? It was all very, very exciting and daunting, obviously”, she added.