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Of the Oscar-snubbed horror movie performances from this century, Florence Pugh's time in Midsommar is one of the most egregious. As deeply traumatized Dani, Pugh crafted a character like a trainwreck - absolutely devestating and utterly impossible to look away from. But the actor's astounding work came at a cost, says the MCU's Yelena Belova, and we're likely never going to see her take quite such a role again.

Let's back up - the topic came up while Pugh was appearing on a recent episode of The Louis Theroux Podcast. Asked about working on the Ari Aster-directed modern classic of folk horror, Pugh revealed that her time as May Queen left her in a rut of half a year's worth of depression.

"[Midsommar] made me sad for like six months after," Pugh told host Theroux, "And I didn’t know why I was depressed. I got back after shooting Little Women, which was such a fun experience and obviously a completely different tone from Midsommar, so I think shelved all of that. And then when I got home for Christmas, I was so depressed and I was like, 'Oh, I think that’s from Midsommar,' and I didn’t deal with it and I probably shouldn’t do that again."

Anyone who's seen the film can take a well-educated guess as to why Pugh might be feeling that way, but what's even more intense was the work she put into the character's backstory that wasn't explicitly stated onscreen. Particularly, when it came to putting herself in the shoes of grieving Dani.

"I really put myself through it," Pugh continued, "At the beginning, I just imagined hearing the news that one of my siblings had died, and then towards the middle of the shoot it was like, 'Oh no, I actually needed to imagine the coffins.’ And then towards the end of the shoot, I actually was going to my whole family’s funeral."

We can understand why anyone wouldn't want to put themselves through that again, Oscars be damned.

Midsommar is streaming on HBO Max now. 

In the immortal words of Danny Elfman, "Life's no fun without a good scare." Join Popverse's weekly explorations of the best opening moments of horror cinema in The Coldest Open, and then check out:

• The best horror movies of all time, according to horror aficionado Greg Silber
• The most underrated horror movies from the past couple years
• All the new and upcoming horror movies for 2025 and beyond

And much gore. Er, more. Much more.