When Zoe Kazan started working on turning *East of Eden* into a seven-episode Netflix limited series, she had only one person in mind for the main role of Cathy Ames: Florence Pugh.
Kazan once told Netflix that she didn’t have any other actress she thought could match Pugh’s talent.
“She is the exact right person to play Cathy,” she said.
She explained that Pugh perfectly captured how John Steinbeck described Cathy in the book.
“Cathy Ames is described in the book as kind of doll-like but with something icy or strong inside,” Kazan told The Hollywood Reporter at the New York premiere of *East of Eden*.
“And I felt in Florence this mix of a very feminine look with, in a Jungian sense—not in a gender way—of masculinity in her soul.She had a lot of raw emotion, strength, and action, which is very Cathy to me.”
Kazan was also impressed by Pugh’s performance in *Midsommar* from 2019.
“I feel like that performance showed a new kind of talent,” Kazan said.
“I think she’s a genius.Even though that character is very different from Cathy, if she can do that kind of performance, she can do this.”
Kazan aimed to focus on Cathy’s point of view and better understand the complex antihero’s motivations.
Pugh also took on an executive producer role in *East of Eden*, playing a central part in the series’ creation since she joined in 2020.
Pugh said she felt “very honored” when Kazan asked her to be in the project.
“I couldn’t believe that she wanted to cast me,” Pugh told THR on the premiere red carpet.
Being involved in the production as an executive producer helped her feel more confident.
“She really wanted me to be part of the process; she wanted to create it with me.
And that was huge,” Pugh said.“At that time in my career and life, I was given an opportunity that was a big moment for me to step up and lead in a different way.Those moments in people’s careers are the beginning of feeling truly confident about yourself.This project has meant a lot to me.”
Pugh also shared her journey with *East of Eden* on Instagram, saying of Kazan, “Zoe Kazan has poured her heart and soul into this project.
I wouldn’t have been able to do any of this without her.She was my protector, my work wife, my cheerleader, my confidence.She created something so epic we all wanted to work on it.”
*East of Eden* has received excellent reviews (it has an 85% freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes), and Pugh’s performance is especially praised.
In a review for THR, chief TV critic Dan Fienberg writes that Pugh “tears into one of fiction’s great and confusing antagonists, a woman so determined and wicked that she makes Becky Sharp from *Vanity Fair* look like a Girl Scout.” He adds that having Pugh play a character who is reluctant to reveal her truth is a smart choice, putting the focus on others who don’t realize what’s obvious to viewers.
“Cathy is scary when she lies, but she’s scarier when she tells the truth,” Fienberg writes, “with an honest honesty that is purely Pugh-ian.She’s so good that even in the second half of the series, when Cathy ages past the point where Pugh is convincing, it still works.”
Esquire calls Pugh’s performance a “career best,” and USA Today says she makes the show a “must see.”
