Though the couple have broken up, Zach Braff and Florence Pugh have unveiled the trailer for their new movie A Good Person. Also starring Morgan Freeman, the melodramatic movie follows a young woman who is the driver of a car in a wreck that kills her sister-in-law. The film’s trailer is already grabbing lots of attention, following Pugh’s role in the hugely messy and polarizing Don’t Worry Darling.
There’s quite a bit going on in A Good Person. Morgan Freeman plays Daniel, the father of Nathan (Chinaza Uche), who was engaged to marry Allison (Pugh) before that fatal accident.. After the tragedy, Allison begins to spiral and becomes dependent on opioids.
In an unlikely twist, Allison ends up seeking refuge in Nathan when she hits rock bottom. Nathanis dealing with other life issues—his daughter has just passed away, and his granddaughter, Ryan (Celeste O’Connor), is sleeping around with older men—but he’s generous enough to support Allison. Plus, she can help him figure out how to give sex advice to his younger granddaughter. It’s a win-win.
There are some small details in the trailer that look promising: Molly Shannon appears to play Pugh’s mother, dream casting for a mother-daughter duo that already pays off in the trailer when they bicker over terrible hairstyles. Jackie Hoffman stars as yappy neighbor Belinda. And Freeman is a model train collector, channeling young Spielberg in The Fabelmans.
Braff wrote and directed the film, which certainly carries a Garden State feel. Braff began dating Pugh back in early 2019, when they collaborated on the short film It Takes Time to Get There. Their 21-year age gap faced a lot of scrutiny, especially on social media. At the time, Pugh was outspoken about why fans shouldn’t comment on their relationship, saying “I have the right to hang out and be with and go out with anyone I want to.”
In August 2022, Pugh confirmed the pair had parted ways in a cover story with Harper’s Bazaar to promote her role in Don’t Worry Darling. Even though they had quietly split, Pugh did say that A Good Person “genuinely was probably one of my most favorite experiences.”
“We’ve been trying to do this separation without the world knowing, because it’s been a relationship that everybody has an opinion on,” Pugh said of the break-up. “We just felt something like this would really do us the benefit of not having millions of people telling us how happy they are that we’re not together. So we’ve done that. I automatically get a lumpy throat when I talk about it.”
A Good Person premieres in theaters on March 24, 2023.
