Florence Pugh Calls This Edenic Destination the “Eighth Wonder of the World”

“Lovely form. Back straight, lean forward,” a voice off camera is directing Florence Pugh as she lifts two Aperol spritzes like heavy weights. “I think you might need to take a sip of the left one to make sure they're even,” the voice suggests. Pugh’s laid-back, witty approach to life is part of the reason she’s so well loved—that and, of course, her breathtaking talent, both on screen and off. We caught up with the actor before the release of East of Eden, a Netflix series based on the Steinbeck classic, starring Pugh as Cathy Ames and Christopher Abbott as Adam Trask. In this edition of our Globetrotter series, Pugh debates vacation red flags, remembers her favorite childhood travel memories, and nominates the eighth wonder of the world.

Sightseeing or sun lounger?

Sun lounger. I love to lie down and feel peaceful and read and just let the sun kiss my skin and swim in the sea and eat amazing food, and then go back to lying back down, and then get back up and eat more amazing food. That's my vacation love language: food, lying down, food, lying down, food.

Best place to sun lounge?

Probably Greece. I love sun lounging in Greece just because firstly, the people are gorgeous and all of the grannies and the mums that run their whole family in the tavernas just always make my heart feel full. And because of the food. I think Greek cuisine is the best cuisine because it just nails every single element perfectly. Protein, perfect. Vegetables, perfect. Homegrown goods, perfect. Tzatziki, perfect. It's perfect!

What’s your favorite wonder of the world?

Probably the Acropolis. That was such a special experience. We shot there at nighttime on The Little Drummer Girl and no one was up there. So I'll never, ever, ever get that experience ever again in my life because we were alone, just the crew and the cast. And all of the lights were lighting up the pillars and there was this beautiful shot that director Park Chan-wook had me do where I was dancing and the shadows were on the building and the ruins. It was just like it was a “pinch me” moment all evening. It was the only night shoot that I hadn't cared what time it was just because it was so dreamy to be there.

Nominate your eighth wonder of the world.

Oh, Arthur's seat in Edinburgh. I love that. I love how you get to look at it from all around the city and then when you climb up there, you just get the most fantastic sense of… Well, I've always done it when I'm knackered, and I know that when I've made it to the top, I can breathe and I can have my snacks and I can look at the view, and then I can go down and find a good pint somewhere. It's definitely a very successful feeling when you get to the top.

What's your biggest vacation red flag?

It's not a [vacation] red flag, it's more of the people that join you on [vacation] red flag... It’s people that don't understand sun cream and sand, it really bothers me. And I don't know why it really bothers me, but it just does. When you put sun cream on, do not sit in the sand and then be surprised that there's sand stuck to your body. That just really grinds my gears.

Describe a vacation disaster.

Oh, Christ. A [vacation] disaster… What about maybe if your room isn't ready and you've arrived and you've got loads of luggage and everybody's grumpy and hungry and you want to get out to the beach but you can't and the hotel doesn't take your bags and you're like, "Ah, that's a bit of a disaster." That has happened to me.

Oh, I tell you what is a [vacation] disaster. When you've purposefully woken up early to put the towel on the lounges and then you go and have a little coffee and it's early. It's like seven. And then you go back to your lounger and someone has moved your towel onto the floor so that they can have the lounger. I feel like you should get a red mark on you if you do that. So everybody else is aware that you're the type of person that would move towels so that you can get the lounger. Also, we can share. Let's just talk about sharing. Why budge my stuff?

What memories do you have from your childhood vacations?

Oh, sunburn. Sunburn on my shoulders and on my thighs. Running around feral, probably usually naked, just wanting to be a part of every adventure. Eating tuna salads as a child when we were in Spain, just having big chunks of albacore tuna with chunky bits of cucumber. I remember that dribbling down my chin and loving that sensation. Forgetting to eat because you're just playing for so many hours in the pool and you're actually shattered and then you finally eat and it's like you forgot to breathe for, I don't know, 10 hours.

What else? Oh, going on a boat and then when you go to bed at night, you're waving. I used to love that sensation. I still thought that I'd be on the boat, so I'd close my eyes and fully pretend that I was at the front of the boat. That's a good memory. And fishing, I used to fish a lot with my dad when I was younger, and that was just a really sweet day that Toby, my brother, and my dad and I would do together and then put the fish back in the sea.

What is your favorite city?

I loved Auckland. I really, really did. I thought that was a very special place. Auckland and maybe Tokyo, just because it's so special and otherworldly and not things that I see every day. So yeah, those two places.

Do you collect souvenirs?

I do, actually. In the last few years, I've started to collect. When I was younger and I looked at magnets in tourist shops, I always thought, who buys them? I've become that person. I buy magnets. But the rule is you either get a really beautiful, ornate, stunningly created, designed one, or if they don't have those, then you get the tackiest, most disgusting, cheap, yucky one. And so my fridge is this fantastic array of beautiful magnets and awful magnets, and I love it… My favorite is… I went to Sri Lanka last year. There's a little bottle magnet of Lion Beer and the liquid moves on the inside and I just thought that was quite cool.

East of Eden is out on Netflix now