Florence Pugh reveals the one scene from We Live in Time that terrified her

As one of the most in-demand actors of her generation, Florence Pugh has appeared in some of the biggest films of the last five years, including Dune: Part Two, Oppenheimer, Midsommar and Little Women. According to her, all of those roles had something in common: they scared her.

"The majority of my roles that I've taken on I've been terrified by," Pugh tells Q's Tom Power in an interview about her latest project, We Live in Time. "Not that the movie is scary or the script is scary, but what I have to do is [scary].... I like the idea of pushing myself to a space that I have no idea if I can do it."

We Live in Time is a romantic drama that follows the relationship of a couple (Pugh and Andrew Garfield) over the course of a decade as they fall in love, start a family and navigate illness. It's a film that looks at what it really takes to live a happy and fulfilled life.

Pugh says there was one scene in We Live in Time that particularly terrified her because it's something she has no first–hand experience with, so there was a lot of pressure to get it right.

"The birthing scene was like, 'How am I going to do that?'" she says. "I've never given birth. I don't know even what it's like to be pregnant. I don't have any idea of what any of these sounds will sound like or how it will feel…. But I was so excited by it, and the fact that I got to do it with Andrew was just thrilling."

One of the big questions the film explores is whether or not to have children. It's a dilemma that can be especially heavy for some women who feel like they must choose between their professional success and motherhood.

"That is something that so many women I know juggle with, [that] I juggle with," Pugh says. "And it was just a very wonderful story to also, I suppose, explain that it's OK to change your mind as well."

In the process of making the film, Pugh began to consider her own approach to life and what's important to her.

"I came out of that experience and I changed a lot about my life," she says. "It put a lot of things into perspective … so I'm hugely grateful for this movie and the lessons that it taught me."

The full interview with Florence Pugh is available on our YouTube channel and on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Interview with Florence Pugh produced by Vanessa Nigro.