Florence Pugh Says Her Body Experienced ‘Trauma’ After She Shaved Her Head For ‘We Live in Time’

Florence Pugh didn’t have to shave her head for her highly anticipated movie, We Live in Time, but to her, it was always “no-brainer.”

In the film, award-winning chef Almut (Pugh) has her partner Tobias (Andrew Garfield) shave her head amid her battle with stage three ovarian cancer. And while director John Crowley had looked into ways the makeup and hair team could fake the drastic cut, Pugh wasn’t interested in faking it. “Before I even got to say anything about any of that, she was [like], ‘I’m shaving my head by the way,'” he recently revealed at the Toronto International Film Festival, per People. “So she’s fearless, Florence, and really committed.”

Pugh herself didn’t see another option. “For any actor taking a role like this, it is completely important that you see her head and we see her shaving it—it was just always a no-brainer,” Pugh told British Vogue during her October cover interview. “You have the honor of doing something to yourself that is totally in support of the character.”

Florence Pugh says living with a buzz cut was “bizarre,” adding, “my head was so sensitive and so many people were trying to touch it and it was so alive.” She even says her “body went into a bit of trauma from it,” noting, “I was cold all the time.”

Her scene partner, Andrew Garfield, did the honors. “It was a privilege to be given that job,” he told British Vogue, though he said it was a “terrifying” endeavor. “What if I somehow destroyed the head of one of the best actors of her generation? It was terrifying, but ultimately it was a very beautiful, intimate scene to shoot and thank God she has such a nicely shaped melon.”