Florence Pugh's East of Eden character allowed her to "expand" as an actress.

The 30-year-old star plays Cathy Ames in a limited series adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel East of Eden, and Florence has admitted to relishing the role, as it's allowed her "to be bigger and better".

Florence told Tudum: "When I read the script [in] 2020, I was already thinking about roles that I would want to play in the future and roles that would require for me to grow up, to better my craft, to allow me to expand."

The new series is written and executive produced by Zoe Kazan, and Florence loved the experience of working with her on the project.

She said: "During that time, this fell in my lap, via an email with an invite from Zoe saying, 'Can you make this with me? Not only can you act for me, but can you be on this creative journey with me?' That was such an invitation, just to allow myself to be bigger and better and [to be] invited into a conversation to create something from the ground up; [it was a] huge confidence boost.

"It was all of these elements, it was playing a fantastic character and also showing up for myself as a performer and a creative behind the scenes. That's why I wanted to do it.

"Then you just start unpicking the layers of Cathy and who she becomes, and why does she become that way? Why does she make these decisions? It was all very, very exciting and daunting, obviously."

Florence and Cathy have both "grown a huge amount" since they first discussed the project.

The actress said: "It's been six years now since we had our first phone call, and it's quite bizarre to go back to the woman who agreed to say yes, to the woman who was in prep, to the woman who was filming it.

"I, much like Cathy, have grown a huge amount, which put an enormous amount of depth and humility into the role because I was aging with her."