Florence Pugh credits working with Zoe Kazan on Netflix’s “East of Eden” as the moment her career shifted into a new gear.
The actress, who plays the ruthless antihero Cathy Ames and serves as an executive producer on the seven-part limited series, said being chosen by Kazan and trusted to shape the show’s creation gave her the confidence to step into a leadership role she hadn’t felt before.
“At that time in my career and in my life, I was being given an opportunity that was a massive moment for me to step up and to lead in a different way,” Pugh told The Hollywood Reporter at the premiere. “Those moments in people’s careers are the beginning of feeling truly confident about yourself. This project has meant a lot to me.”
Why Zoe Kazan chose Florence Pugh and no one else
Kazan cast Pugh when the actress joined the project in 2020, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The creative partnership was so central to the show’s vision that Kazan had no backup plan. “I didn’t have another person that I thought would be just as good. She is the exact right person to play Cathy,” Kazan said.
What drew Kazan to Pugh was her rare combination of qualities. “The way that Cathy Ames is described in the book is kind of doll-like but with something icy or steely underneath,” Kazan explained. “And I felt in Florence this mix of a very feminine presentation with, in a Jungian sense not in a gender sense, of masculinity to her soul.
That she had a lot of raw emotion and agency and action, which is very Cathy to me.” Kazan was also struck by Pugh’s earlier performance in 2019’s Midsommar.
The creative partnership that transformed Pugh
What made the collaboration transformative for Pugh wasn’t just landing the role, it was how Kazan involved her in the entire creative process. “She really wanted me to be a part of the process; she wanted to create it with me,” Pugh said. “And that was just huge.”
On Instagram, Pugh expanded on what that partnership meant, writing that Kazan “has poured her heart and soul into this project” and served as her “protector, my work wife, my cheerleader, my confidence.” That support system was critical as Pugh tackled one of fiction’s most complex antagonists, a character who must reveal her true nature through Pugh’s performance while remaining enigmatic within the story itself.
Kazan’s approach to adapting John Steinbeck’s 1952 novel gave Cathy the space to be fully realized on screen. According to TheWrap, Kazan described the creative challenge as a complex puzzle: “Every part of this, every episode, has its own pace and its own genre even, and making it feel like one big story while also letting each of those pieces be its own piece was the difficult thing.”
The role that proved Pugh’s range
The show has received strong reviews, holding an 85 percent freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes. “East of Eden” has become one of the most celebrated limited series on Netflix. Critics singled out Pugh’s performance as a standout. The Hollywood Reporter’s chief TV critic Dan Fienberg wrote that she “tears into one of fiction’s great and confounding antagonists,” and praised her choice to play a character who hides her truth: “Cathy is scary when she lies, but she’s scarier when she tells the truth, with an unobscured honesty that is purely Pugh-ian.”
Esquire called her work a “career best,” while USA Today named the series a “must see,” in large part because of Pugh’s commanding presence.
What’s next for Florence Pugh
“East of Eden” is now streaming on Netflix. The limited series marks a major moment in Pugh’s career, one she attributes directly to Kazan’s faith in her vision and her willingness to collaborate as equals in building the show. Find out what else is new on the platform this month by checking our October 2026 Netflix guide.
Reporting from The Hollywood Reporter and TheWrap contributed to this story.
