Time - USA (2021-03-01)

Florence

Pugh

25 • Authentic actor

BY LENA HEADEY

Florence Pugh carries a lack of
vanity that sees her fully and
completely inhabit every role she
takes on, from the historically
maligned Amy March in Little
Women to the grieving Dani in
Midsommar. We met working on
Fighting With My Family, for which
she transformed into a WWE star.
We wrestled together (in hot
pants), cried together (scripted),
but mostly, we laughed a lot.
She is a wonderful actor, filled
with generosity toward her
co-stars and curiosity about
the human experience. An even
bigger audience will soon know
her power when Florence stars
opposite Scarlett Johansson in
the upcoming Marvel film Black
Widow. When she’s not onscreen,
Flo feels no need to pretend
to be someone other than who
she is: a fantastic cook and a
massive nerd, which I say as a
compliment. Also, she sings like
a f-cking angel.

Headey is an Emmy Award–
nominated actor

PUGH: JINGYU LIN—THE NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX; BRIDGERS: GETTY IMAGES; HAAS:

ILLUSTRATION BY ALEXIS FRANKLIN FOR TIME; LIL BABY: KENNETH CAPPELLO; WILSON: HBO

PHOEBE BRIDGERS

26 • Ethereal voice

BY CARMEN MARIA MACHADO

Phoebe Bridgers didn’t know the pandemic was coming. But you’d never

know it from “I Know the End,” an opulent, chaotic song about our

shared apocalypse from her Grammy-nominated album Punisher, widely

regarded as one of the best new releases of 2020. Seer, artist, “master of

collapse”—all of these descriptions are accurate, but the highest praise

I can deliver is how much Phoebe reminds me of discovering Tori Amos

in my wayward youth. Not just her style—a clear voice pinning impres-

sionistic lyrics to lush instrumentals—but her music’s inescapable mood:

being 18, circling my college campus with my Walkman in the middle of

the night, letting music that captures the terrible queer haunted ugly gor-

geous heartbreak of the unfolding world rinse over me. Whether it’s en-

raging milquetoast reply guys by smashing a guitar on live TV or carving

out a space as a furious, ethereal prophet, she’s as good as she is singular. I

can’t imagine anyone I’d rather follow through our poisoned age.

Machado is a best-selling author of the memoir In the Dream House and

other works. Her short story “Yesterday, Tomorrow” was featured on

Bridgers’ album Punisher

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90 Time March 1/March 8, 2021