Ari Aster followed ‘Hereditary’ with an even more traumatizing second film, ‘Midsommar.’ Starring Florence Pugh as Dani, a grieving psychology student, the film follows her and a group of her friends attending a Swedish festival which soon turns into a nightmare.
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Haley Lu Richardson Didn’t Agree To Star In ‘Midsommar’
Before Florence Pugh, ‘Midsommar’ was offered to Haley Lu Richardson. ‘The White Lotus’ actress recently told Backstage about turning down the script due to its “disturbing” amount of graphic and sickening violence. Besides, coming off ‘Split,’ she had no desire to do a traumatizing movie.
Haley Lu Richardson told the outlet, “They wanted to meet me. I had actually done Split, I think, a year or two before. And I was like, ‘I don’t want to do another disturbing movie right now. I just don’t have it in me, going around and crying at these disturbing things. It wasn’t something that I wanted, and I felt really strongly about that. So I didn’t even take the meeting.”
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Florence Pugh Took Over ‘Midsommar’ From Haley Lu Richarson
After Haley Lu Richardson turned down ‘Midsommar,’ the script went to Florence Pugh. She starred as Dani, who’s in a dysfunctional relationship with her boyfriend, Christian (Jack Reynor). The film was a critical and commercial hit, making $48.1 million against its $9 million budget.
Written and directed by Ari Aster, ‘Midsommar’ follows a couple who travels to Sweden to visit their friend’s rural hometown for its fabled midsummer festival. But what begins as an idyllic retreat quickly devolves into an increasingly violent and bizarre competition at the hands of a pagan cult. For her performance, Florence Pugh was nominated for Gotham Independent Film Awards.
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