Every role, same ritual: Florence Pugh’s peculiar spending habit

Before she steps on set, Florence Pugh makes one last stop: the perfume counter. She says every character she plays gets their own fragrance, a scent she buys specifically to help her lock into who that person is. It ’s the very last thing she puts on—after the costume—so it becomes part of how the character moves through a scene.

Scent as character work

Pugh described the ritual in a recent Elle interview tied to her new role as the face of Max Mara’s Le Parfum, explaining that fragrance is her final key into a role’s mindset—and body language.

"It's really important locating who that woman [the character] is, and what she smells like. It could be scents that I would never buy for myself and but when I'm that character, it makes so much sense," she said.

An Amy March example

For Amy March in Little Women, Pugh said she went even further, creating a bespoke perfume—this time with help from her mom. When Pugh tackles period pieces, her mother dives into research about what scents would have been available and what a woman of that era could actually buy.

"She made a unique smell for me that was perfect for older Amy, because it was really sophisticated and floral and beautiful, and it just made me love Amy even more," she told Elle.

That Amy fragrance, Pugh added, was inspired by the character’s lifestyle and even nodded to the minerals Amy might have used while painting—another way of making the scent feel historically and personally true.

Asked about her own comfort smells outside of work, Pugh singled out the aromas that steady her at home:

• The smell of cooking
• Jasmine candles
• Oud candles

From Marvel ’s Yelena Belova to the title role in Lady Macbeth, Pugh says the rule doesn’t change: every character gets a signature scent that helps her find them. She discussed the practice in Elle while being introduced as the new face of Max Mara’s Le Parfum.