Florence Pugh Cut Her Own Hair in A Good Person Scene

Florence Pugh gives new meaning to the cutting room floor in her latest film.

The Academy Award nominee, 27, revealed she really cut her own hair into a pixie in one scene from A Good Person, explaining to USA Today that it turned out to be “the final key to unlocking” her character in the movie helmed by ex-boyfriend Zach Braff.

“For me, whenever I was particularly low as a teenager, I would do lots of quick fixes,” recalled Pugh. “I would buy things like nail kits or scissors and go onto YouTube and find out how to do it. I was just looking in any direction but the thing that was making me sad.”

In A Good Person, she plays Allison, a woman who forms an unlikely friendship with her would-be father-in-law Daniel (Morgan Freeman) years after she was in a fatal crash that killed his daughter, her then-fiancé’s sister.

Also a producer on the film, Pugh noted it was her idea to make the chop on camera. “Everyone was really anxious that it was the only take we’d have, but I found it really liberating,” she said. “If anything, it was like the final key to unlocking this character. It took vanity out the window.”

Braff, 47, who wrote, directed and produced the movie, told USA Today that “everyone was biting their nails” the day of the scene.

Robert Lugo, head of A Good Person‘s hair department, told PopSugar it wasn’t the original plan. “I thought we were going to get a custom-made wig,” he said, noting she did rehearse with wigs and “wasn’t nervous” when it came time to shoot the scene.

Fortunately, the result didn’t need to be perfect. “It was supposed to be a f—ed-up haircut, so I thought, the more messed up, the better,” added Lugo.

RELATED VIDEO: Florence Pugh and Zach Braff Support Each Other on Red Carpet for Their Film A Good Person After Breakup

Pugh and Braff reunited on the red carpet of the U.K. premiere for A Good Person earlier this month, after she revealed in August that they quietly broke up following three years together. They met while working together on another title, his short film, In the Time It Takes to Get There.

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A Good Person is now in select theaters, premiering worldwide on March 31.