The filmmaker also shares his conflicted feelings on the viral carousel horse memes that became people’s first look at the project: “I didn’t mind at all … [but] it’s very unfortunate that film is not as central as it was in the culture.”

We Live in Time director John Crowley knew the level of excellence he’d be receiving from one of his most cherished former collaborators, Andrew Garfield, but it was Florence Pugh’s commitment to the nonlinear indie drama that managed to surpass any and all preconceived notions.

Oftentimes, stars prioritize their lucrative big-budget studio films, while their passion projects in the independent world have to work in the margins, both in terms of schedule and preparation. But in the case of Pugh and the role of Almut Brühl, she treated the Nick Payne-scripted romantic drama like it was as important as anything else, meaning she willingly shaved her head to play the part of a chef who risks, and later endures, a recurrence of ovarian cancer after starting a family with her boyfriend Tobias Durand (Garfield).

The rub of such a big choice is that in-demand actors like Pugh typically have other jobs lined up all year, and the spring 2023 production of A24’s We Live in Time was to be immediately followed by her central role as Yelena Belova in Marvel Studios’ Thunderbolts. Austin Butler faced an inverse situation when Dune: Part Two’s brain trust wanted him to go bald for baddie Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, but he instead negotiated a bald cap so that Jeff Nichols’ subsequent shoot of The Bikeriders didn’t risk its financing due to the star having to sport a buzz cut or wig.

The rub of such a big choice is that in-demand actors like Pugh typically have other jobs lined up all year, and the spring 2023 production of A24’s We Live in Time was to be immediately followed by her central role as Yelena Belova in Marvel Studios’ Thunderbolts. Austin Butler faced an inverse situation when Dune: Part Two’s brain trust wanted him to go bald for baddie Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, but he instead negotiated a bald cap so that Jeff Nichols’ subsequent shoot of The Bikeriders didn’t risk its financing due to the star having to sport a buzz cut or wig.

Undaunted, Pugh never hesitated about whether to go all the way with the haircut.

“She didn’t tell anybody [that she was shaving her head]. It was sort of terrifying to me. I was like, ‘Wow, that’s really ballsy,’” Crowley tells The Hollywood Reporter. “The first time I met her … she said, ‘Oh, by the way, I want to shave my head.’ And before I met her, I had assumed she would probably say to me, ‘What are we going to do about the shaving of the head?’”

Amid the WGA strike, Thunderbolts held on to its June 2023 production window for as long as possible, but by the end of May, they finally decided to fold up shop, which meant that Pugh’s bold move became moot. Regardless, Crowley is grateful that the actor, like Butler, gave all-too-rare precedence to a smaller project. (Oddly enough, Thunderbolts‘ previous two-month delay created the opportunity for Pugh to do We Live in Time first.)

“There’s this fearlessness in Florence, and she said, ‘No, it would be terrible. I hate bald wigs. It won’t work. You can’t do it,’” Crowley recalls. “The smaller, more independent film was the one where the actor was saying, ‘This is the one I’m going to pitch my stake in the ground for and not creatively compromise on.’”

Below, during a recent conversation with THR, Crowley also adds context to Garfield’s recent account of a sex scene that went on for far longer than it should have.

Coming out of The Goldfinch, what were you looking for en route to We Live in Time?

I was looking, on a looser scale, to not do another literary adaptation. That was the first thing. But the honest truth is that I’m always looking for a visceral reaction in a script rather than a genre choice. That said, when this script arrived, I already knew Nick’s [Payne] work. I directed a play by him in the theater ten years ago, and he’s a friend of mine. So I was very excited to read it, and there was a lot about it that then thrilled me. It was the fact that it was an original, and that it was set in a contemporary version of London that I recognized very well. It was also different to anything I had done before. It was maybe a little gentler and softer in a way, and it was a slightly different emotional tone. There’s obviously sadness and grief in things like Brooklyn and The Goldfinch, but it just felt different. It felt like a different aura. It was a move forward on some of the stuff I’ve done before, and it had two extraordinary roles for two great actors. And we lucked out with those roles.

Andrew Garfield, Florence Pugh and John Crowley on Set of We Live In Time PETER MOUNTAIN/A24

As far as your feature work, you’re one of the few filmmakers who’s still trying to make dramas. Is it getting harder and harder to get them made without having some kind of bend to them?

It certainly generates a degree of nervousness, which, to give my financiers enormous credit, they kept mostly away from me. But I could feel it in them that they were nervous about the thing that this was, despite these two amazing actors. There were a number of things that had to go right, and there were a number of bullseyes that had to be hit for it to get out to its audience. It’s only beginning its journey now, but it was very, very nerve-racking for everybody. I don’t feel that, personally, because I tried to make something that I might like to watch. If I like it and I’m moved by it and entertained by it, then hopefully there’ll be others if we can find where they are. But, yeah, it’s unfortunate that it’s a rare bird rather than a regular occurrence.

Florence Pugh would make the casting shortlist regardless, but did her past culinary exploits on Instagram factor into her casting at all? 

I must admit that I’m not on Instagram, so I did not know that she was as passionate about cooking and eating. She has a wonderful joy in her around food, which is very infectious. So I didn’t know that. I was purely on her casting as an exact piece of psychological specificity. I thought she was really good casting for the role. She has a strength and also a degree of emotional scale, and if she could combine the two, then she could really light up Almut as somebody who’s holding the fear of what’s happening to her at bay by pushing the career side of herself. And when she finally cracks and shows her vulnerability in the big argument scene with Tobias in the kitchen, I knew that it would be heartbreaking.