If the idea of the ‘movie star’ is dead, resurrecting saviour and English actress Florence Pugh is a reminder that even amidst influencers and social media personage, there still remains a traditional – albeit nowadays rare – ascent to Hollywood fame. Pugh first hit the scene with her breakthrough role as the eponymous Lady Macbeth in 2016’s adaptation, where she gave a “lethally charismatic” performance. Since then, the 25-year old has gone on to star in Midsommar as Dani, a psychology student grieving the death of her family, Fighting with My Family and Little Women, where she breathed new life into Amy March. And cementing her meteoric rise, Pugh stepped into her first Marvel film role this year, playing assassin Yelena Belova.

But her film reel aside, there is more to Pugh than the characters she’s played. Below, find 8 fast facts you may not have known about rising starlet Florence Pugh.

She comes from a family of performers and artists

“She instinctively knows how to be in a big family group. She was always the first one in the play-fight, the first one telling a joke, starting a giggle-fest, eating the prop cakes. She had that bubbling-over energy of sisterhood,” Little Women director Greta Gerwig revealed in a 2020 profile of the actress.

Like Amy, Pugh is the second younger of four siblings, all musicians, and actors in their own right. Fans of Game of Thrones may know the actress’ dashing, curly-haired brother, Toby Sebastian who played Trystane Martell in the hit series. Speaking about growing up in an artistic environment, Pugh has said that having siblings in the acting industry exposed her to many of its harsh realities early on.

Before Hollywood, she called Spain her home

Having suffered from acute asthma as a child, Pugh remembers being ushered in and out of hospitals frequently. In an interview with Vogue US, the star opened up about her tracheomalacia, explaining that the condition worsened so much that her family moved to Spain in hopes that the warmer climate would help. Even so, Pugh wouldn’t have changed it for the world, saying: “Even though we moved out there for other reasons, looking back on it, I’m so happy I had that childhood—in and out of the sea naked, cycling down the road in my knickers, and bartering with the sweet shop owner”.

Her role as child heroine Amy March earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress at age 23

As though working alongside a cast of talented women to bring to life a beloved children’s classic wasn’t enough esteem, Florence Pugh’s 2019 role as Amy March garnered her buzzy attention from the Academy. Pugh was nominated for Best Supporting Actress alongside her Little Women costar Laura Dern, who went home with the award for her role in Marriage Story, but imbuing humour and soul into the beloved children’s character, fans on the Internet agreed that the Amy-issance had arrived, with Pugh commandeering the boat.