Zach Braff wrote A Good Person to showcase Florence Pugh's talent – and is already writing another movie with her in mind

gamesradar.com:

Zach Braff is a self-confessed procrastinator. It’s been 19 years since the Scrubs star’s writing and directorial debut, Garden State, and nine years since he followed it with Wish I Was Here. Though he tells Total Film magazine (opens in new tab) in the latest issue, which features Renfield on the cover, that he wanted to write a third film he struggled to get started. "There has to be a catalyst that really puts me in the chair," he laughs over Zoom from LA. "Like so many people who write, I’ll do anything to procrastinate. So it has to be something that I’m really willing to dedicate so much time to, and also something that I feel like I have to say that’s hopefully worthwhile to people."

All three of his screenplays happened at pivotal points in his life, he admits: Garden State springing from a "post-collegiate quarter-life crisis", while Wish I Was Here was triggered by his fears of his parents passing. A Good Person was born out of grief. 

"I had a four-year period where I just kept losing very important people in my life," he recalls of a series of sorrows: the death of his dad, his sister, his dog, his manager and, as the pandemic raged and devoured, his friend, actor Nick Cordero, who died of COVID-19 while staying in Braff’s guesthouse. 

His need to explore "standing up to grief" also dovetailed with a wish to write something for Florence Pugh that showcased her skills. "We were partners [the couple split last year]. I was, and am, in awe of her talents, and I thought, 'Oh my goodness, it would be such an honour to write for her.'"

The resulting screenplay told the story of Allison (Pugh), a happily engaged pharma rep whose world falls apart in the aftermath of a car crash that kills her prospective sister-