In the space of a few short years, Florence Pugh has proved her versatility on the big screen – from the pitch-black period drama Lady Macbeth, to her arresting turn in this year’s Park Chan-Wook-directed John Le Carré miniseries The Little Drummer Girl. And for her next move? She’s choke-slamming and half nelson-ing in Fighting With My Family, playing real-life wrestling star Saraya-Jade ‘Paige’ Bevis, a kid from Norwich who rose to international stardom through WWE – while her wrestling-obsessed brother notably didn’t. Empire has an exclusive image from the film, as seen in the Ultimate 2019 Preview issue, showing Pugh’s Paige in showboating mode.
Paige’s story was first told in a Channel 4 documentary in 2012, which serves as the basis for this film – with Stephen Merchant turning film director for the first time since 2010’s Cemetery Junction. “I sat down to watch [it] expecting to be disinterested,” he tells Empire of the small-screen doc. “But I was very engaged by the family.”
Read more about Fighting With My Family in the February 2019 issue of Empire, on sale in newsagents and online now. The film will step into the ring on 1 March.
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