Florence Pugh Sends Defiant Message At Actors' Strike Picket Line Outside Disney HQ

The Oscar nominee's ties to Disney include her role in the MCU and a rumoured part in the Tangled live-action remake.
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Florence Pugh on the picket line
Hollywood To You/Star Max via Getty Images

Florence Pugh showed her solidarity with fellow striking actors as she joined them on the picket lines on Tuesday. 

The Marvel star – who played Yelena Belova in 2021’s Black Widow movie – sported a white off-the-shoulder mini dress with a SAG-AFTRA union sticker affixed to it as she marched outside Disney’s Burbank studios in California. 

Despite her cat-eye sunglasses, Florence was instantly recognisable thanks to her slightly grown-out, platinum blonde buzz cut. 

The Oscar nominee also proudly carried a sign which read: “SAG-AFTRA on strike. Grrrrrrr! This is BULLSHIT!”

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Florence Pugh
Hollywood To You/Star Max via Getty Images

Since the strike began on 14 July, picket lines have formed outside many of Hollywood’s huge movie studios. 

Florence was at the Oppenheimer premiere in London when the walkout was officially called, and joined her co-stars in symbolically leaving the event before the film was actually shown. 

The premiere had been brought forward by an hour to allow for a brief celebration of the film before the strike was called. 

She told the press as she made her way down the red carpet: “It’s been a really, really tense few days for a lot of people, not just actors but everybody in the industry who are going to be affected by this decision but affected by a decision that is necessary.

“Equally, premieres aren’t just for us, they are to honour a movie, they are to honour a crew that made them so we feel both lucky that we got to squeeze this in, and also lucky that we get to stand by our peers in a decision that is made.

“We hope that something comes of it soon.”

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Florence Pugh at the Oppenheimer premiere on 13 July
Karwai Tang via Getty Images

Florence is set to reprise her Marvel role in the new movie Thunderbolts, which is due to start filming next year – though this could be delayed due to the writers’ and actors’ strikes. 

Her decision to picket outside the Disney studios comes following rumours she’s landed the lead role of Rapunzel in the studio’s live-action remake of Tangled.

Members of the Screen Actors Guild Awards (SAG) and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFRTA) have joined together for the history-making strikes

Union members – from Hollywood A-listers to TV extras – are currently off sets and out of action. As part of the strike, all promotional activities are also on hold, including interviews and social media posts. 

TV and film writers who are part of the Writers’ Guild of America (WGA) are also taking strike action right now, having first walked out on 2 May. 

Production has been suspended on films such as Deadpool 3 and the Wicked adaptation, and TV shows including American Horror Story and Law & Order.