We all know a Florence…some of us might even be a Florence. What sets the real-life Florences apart from the one in Netflix’s audacious limited series, Vladimir, is that Miriam Silverman creates a character with a sense of wanting to belong underneath the rule-following and ridigity. She takes a character that would normally stay on the periphery and gives her so much presence that you look over your shoulder to make sure she didn’t hear what you just said about her.
As Rachel Weisz’s M allows her infatuation with Leo Woodall’s Vladimir to get more and more intense, I couldn’t help but think about the people who are forced to watch the drama unfold on the sidelines. What I wouldn’t give to re-watch Vladimir‘s eight episodes but follow Silverman’s Florence. It takes a special kind of performer to make you want to stay to gossip and gasp for just an extra five minutes.
Florence seems like the type of person who took value in the rules put in place to make things fair and to keep everyone safe. I tell Silverman how impressed I am with her posture, and I imagine Florence found value in things that aren’t taught anymore. Remember cursive handwriting? I bet you ten bucks that Florence’s cursive is impeccable. Silverman does makes us wonder, though, what it would be like for Florence to let loose. Maybe we buy her another round of drinks and that extra white wine will spill some true feelings. Oh, bartender…
I have been drawn to Silverman since I saw her win the Featured Actress in a Play Tony Award for her performance in The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window when it was revived on Broadway in 2023. She was the only performer from that cast to be nominated in that crowded year, but it speaks to the kinds of roles that Silverman embodies so well. I wonder how her Brustein character, Mavis, would get along with someone like Florence as they watch Weisz and Woodall’s characters in the same timeline. Maybe Florence wouldn’t be so uptight if she encountered a Mavis so closely–even if they share different levels of contempt for bohemia. We talk briefly about Say As I Say, a short film that I adored from this last year.
Characters like Florence shouldn’t be swept under the rug or simply thought less of because their ideals do not align with ours. They may seem like pesky antagonists, but maybe they want to be brought into the saucy narrative as much as an intrigued crowd. The Florences of the world might surprise you.
Vladimir is streaming now on Netflix.
