Florence Pugh on Playing Steinbeck's 'Monster' in Netflix's East of Eden

Florence Pugh has described her role as Cathy Ames in Netflix's adaptation of John Steinbeck's East of Eden as one of the most demanding of her career, saying the character's complexity initially left her frightened of the part.

"I think she's an unbelievably complicated and complex and fascinating character," Pugh said. "In the early drafts that Zoe sent me, I was so terrified of how I was going to play her, if I could play her. And usually when I have that level of fear, I know that it's a job that I'm going to do."

Pugh, who also serves as an executive producer on the miniseries, said the creative team set out to understand Cathy's choices without excusing them. "She does awful things and she is a very intimidating character. But I think we've just tried to put some understanding behind who this person is," she said.

Based on Steinbeck's 1952 novel, the series follows the villainous Cathy and the brothers Adam and Charles, played by Christopher Abbott and Mike Faist. Pugh recalled that one of her hardest days on set involved filming numerous sex scenes depicting her character's time as a prostitute, all shot in a single day.

"I had playlists that I would listen to in preparation for scenes where I really wanted to embody those moments. And it was really, really sad and I would shake. It would definitely affect me," she said. By the end of that day, she added, she felt the exhaustion her character would have felt: "We were shooting a working woman and how exhausting that was."

Showrunner Zoe Kazan said she was drawn to Cathy's single-minded pursuit of her own interests. "She is using all of her tools to assure her own safety and security, and I think the clarity of that vision is arresting," Kazan said, adding that society is uncomfortable with a selfish woman who defies conventional ideas of a mother or wife.

Abbott and Faist play siblings caught in a love triangle with Cathy. Faist, who appeared in a similar romantic dynamic in Challengers, said such stories let audiences revisit the path not taken. "Maybe if I did this, my life would be different," he said. Abbott noted that every character in the show carries both good and evil, with nuance throughout.

The two actors also recalled their first meeting years ago, when Faist was preparing for West Side Story and trained with Abbott's boxing coach. "The first time I met Chris Abbott, he was punching me in the face repeatedly," Faist said. "But he couldn't have been nicer about it."

East of Eden will be available to stream on Netflix from October 1.