FLORENCE Pugh was on board a ferry to the Isle of Wight when she got the call that would change her life.

Since then she has won the Breakthrough Trophy at the Evening Standard Film Awards for her performance in new film Lady Macbeth, has Hollywood calling and the world’s media circling like sharks at a shipwreck, so it’s a good job she turned around and headed back for the audition.

“I know can you imagine?” she laughs. “I thought the audition had gone really badly and I didn’t hear back from them until a week later,” she remembers.

Florence is well known in Oxford. The former St Edward’s School pupil, and daughter of Oxford restaurateur Clinton Pugh, has been acting since she left school early to film The Falling in 2014, for which she was nominated for two prestigious film awards.

But the furore surrounding Lady Macbeth is a whole different ball game and this time around there’s isn’t time for a cosy catch-up and a cup of coffee in a Summertown cafe.

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Instead I’m on the press junket list and get my 15 minutes with the more worldy and professional Florence.

She is ecstatic to have jumped into the big league so quickly and apparently effortlessly, but the fanfare, endless appearances and press interest have startled her. She came home to Farmoor at the weekend for a Sunday roast before heading back to the bright lights of the media circus, but it’s a lot to take on.

“I’m not surprised it’s happened because I’m invested and I have always wanted to do this. But it doesn’t need to mean I become a different person. I’ve just got my grown up head on,” she tells me.

So what’s all the fuss about? Mainly Florence’s astonishing performance in the period drama based on Nikolai Leskov’s Lady Macbeth of Mtensk District, about Katherine, a discontented, and ultimately violent, young bride, which is set in Northumberland rather than Russia.

Opening this week, the reaction to the film has been extraordinary, Florence being hailed as the ’next big thing.’

“People keep asking me if there’s a bit of Katherine in me, and where she came from, because the film is so dark,” Florence giggles. “But I love her and I stand by her. She’s feisty and born into the wrong era. She was playing with fire but she kicks back anyway. She is a very modern woman. When I read the script Catherine grew bigger and better in every scene, and I got totally drawn into her story

“I had a good idea of how I wanted her to look and be, to create someone as realistic as possible.”

“Put it this way – it’s not like any other period drama I’ve ever seen,” Florence chuckles. “So it feels good to be on this side because lots of hard work went into it.”

Had she envisaged it would be such a big hit? “Even though we had a great script and a great director I didn’t know how far it was going to go, because it was such a small production. We were like a family. We filmed it in four weeks which is such a short time, and once we got going it was like a machine that didn’t stop.”

And what of the media circus, endless photo shoots, global film festivals and interviews? She shrugs. “Lady Macbeth is my baby, so I want to support it as much as I can. I want people to believe in it as much as I do. And it’s been fun to get dressed up and fly around the world to all these ceremonies and festivals.”

The pinnacle being her Breakthrough trophy at the Evening Standard British Film Awards: “ I know,” she gushes. “ I looked like a Christmas bauble. I was so nervous that night. But I never thought I would win. I drank too much wine at dinner and laughed about how awful it would be if one I won and had to go up and then they called my name out! Can you imagine? And I had to get up and talk. My mind just went blank and my legs were shaking,” she recalls. “But it was so exciting. Such an amazing evening.”

And yet it nearly didn’t happen at all. Last time we spoke Florence was moving to LA to star in a big new Fox TV series Studio City, the story of a wannabe singer/songwriter from Utah who moves to LA to crack the music business. But the pilot was never picked up and Florence was suddenly out of work.

“I’m so thankful now, despite putting so much time and energy into it, because otherwise I wouldn’t have done Lady Macbeth, so I’m pretty chuffed it didn’t work out actually,” she chuckles.

Instead she headed up to Northumberland for the filming of the often violent, sexual and abusive scenes her character Katherine encounters.

So how did she feel about the nudity? “If you read a script and the nudity makes sense and its not gratuitous then I don’t have a problem with it,” she says calmly. “This is Katherine in her home getting out of bed. If she wasn’t naked it would be weird.

“But the nude scene with her husband is a turning point in the film. That’s when something changes and the audience starts siding with her, and they have to for the film to work, the audience needs to be on her side.”

And the silence? “The silence says more about her boredom than a million words. Because she has no one to talk to, nothing for her to do, just listening to a ticking clock.”

And what about the abusive side? “Its horrible to film of course but the audience needs to be sympathetic and care for Katherine before she does anything horrible, otherwise they wouldn’t give two hoots. And it was difficult filming the violent scenes, they do affect you, but they don’t toy with my head in any way. I’m not a method actor,” she says.

Now just waiting for the film’s release, Florence says: “it will be interesting to see what the public think, it’s an exciting time.”

So what next? “I’m just trying to figure that out. I’ve finished filming Fighting With My Family, a new film about an aspiring female WWF which stars Vince Vaughn, The Rock and Nick Frost and directed by Stephen Merchant, which was pretty amazing.” Hence the black hair. “So I’m trying to find another amazing woman I want to play. Feisty women are my calling.”

And will Florence move to LA permanently? “I come back to Oxford when I need a rest and a cuppa. I’m trying to figure out where to live but I’m never in one place for long enough to decide. Otherwise you’ll find me back in Oxford,” she smiles.