“I have never had a screaming match on my set,” she recently told New York magazine’s The Cut. “I was never not available on set. I wanted to be like, ‘None of this is true.’ ”
Pugh hasn’t publicly told her side of the story, and that is not going to change today. “Oh, no. I feel like there’s so much stuff we’ve covered that is important for me and on track with my life and my career,” she says when I bring up the film. I follow by asking if she’s seen Wilde’s critically acclaimed new movie, The Invite. “I haven’t,” Pugh says brightly, “but I’ve heard it’s fantastic, and a great cast. Great cast.”
For what it’s worth, when asked to name the performance of Pugh’s that she loves the most, Ashley Park brings up Don’t Worry Darling unprompted. “You know what? I watched it on a plane, and I think I had taken something to make me go to sleep. I called her afterwards and I was like, ‘I’m in a simulation. There’s someone with goggles next to me. I don’t know what to do.’ And she was like, ‘This is insane, Ashley.’ And I was like, ‘No, but I’m being so serious right now. That’s how great your performance was.’ ”
Pugh is similarly tight-lipped about her partner, Peaky Blinders star Finn Cole. They’ve been dating for the last few years, though they only went Instagram public this past March. Our conversation about this begins as follows:
Me: “Can I ask about your relationship?”
Pugh: “You can. I might not tell you everything.”
Me: “How did you meet?”
Pugh, smiling: “No.”
Fortunately for my ego, there’s a bit more to it than that. “I don’t want to be a secret, but I also don’t want everything to be divulged,” Pugh explains. “The important thing is that we’re happy, and I feel solid and safe and sturdy. And that’s worth its weight in gold in our lives. I actually asked him, ‘I wonder if you’re going to come up?’”—meaning during our interview. “He said, ‘Well, shall I pop by?’” Unfortunately for my ego, he does not pop by.
Pugh is more open about her evolving relationship with social media. She made viral waves in 2022 by posting about the backlash she got after wearing a sheer pink Valentino gown to the designer’s Rome couture show (Park calls the incident “nipplegate”; that show is where she and Pugh met), and in 2020 by addressing the public vitriol surrounding her romantic relationship with then boyfriend Zach Braff. A few years ago her silly dispatches about doing “surgery” on her cacti or mentions of her love for snails regularly inspired BuzzFeed lists and fawning fan edits. These days, her feed is more professionally focused, showcasing mostly red-carpet looks and key art and the occasional photo of her beloved rescue dog, Billie.
It’s been a natural evolution. When she was younger, Pugh felt an urge to post everything: “‘I should document this. People should see this.’ I don’t have that tic anymore. I guess maybe I’m not addicted to it anymore,” she says, between bites of a hearty fagioli e tonno salad. “I think ultimately it’s probably going to become more of a business account. At this point in my life, I’m more invested in real stuff, and I’m forgetting to post. Which is lovely.”
