Zach Braff has reflected on working with Florence Pugh on his film A Good Person.
Braff, 47, and Pugh, 27, dated for three years, including during the film’s shoot, before splitting up in early 2022.
In the movie, directed by Braff, Pugh plays a woman whose world falls apart when she is involved in a fatal car crash that kills her future sister-in-law. In her despair, she forms an unlikely friendship with her would-be father-in-law, portrayed by Morgan Freeman.
Speaking about Pugh’s acting talent, Braff told The Guardian in a new interview: “I was just in awe of her. You can’t find an actor from Meryl Streep to someone fresh out of school that doesn’t think Florence is a pretty extraordinary talent.
“There’s just something about her, she’s got that movie star quality. And it’s natural – she’s not trained classically in any way. It’s just in her blood, in her soul.”
He said that casting her alongside Freeman was “like the great old Jedi Master Yoda [acting opposite] the young, exciting ingenue”.
Braff described the moment he found out Freeman had said yes to the film, saying: “Soon my phone rang, and I remember it was Florence who held it up to me because it said ‘Morgan Freeman’ across the top. I answered it and without even saying ‘Hey Zach’ or anything he just said: ‘I see myself on every page of the script.’”
While Braff and Pugh were together, some online commentators criticised them due to their 21-year age gap. Pugh responded by sharing a lengthy Instagram video in which she declared that no one had the right to tell her “who I should and should not love”.
In January this year, Pugh told Vogue she is still “figuring out” how to navigate single life. “My breakup has been very new, so I’m figuring that out,” she said.
A Good Person is out in UK cinemas on 24 March and on Sky Cinema and Now from 28 April.
