Cate Shortland was desperate to work with Florence Pugh

Cate Shortland has been desperate to work with Florence Pugh for years.

The 52-year-old director recently joined forces with Florence, 25, to shoot the long-awaited 'Black Widow' movie, and Cate admitted she's been inspired by Florence since seeing her in 2016's 'Lady Macbeth'.

Cate told SFX magazine: "I'd wanted to work with Florence since 'Lady Macbeth'. When I did my interview at Disney, Kevin [Feige] asked me who I was inspired by, and she was the first person: I said she'd be great to have in this movie, and we hadn't read the script yet.

"I just thought, 'What an interesting person she is'. There's a sense of reality to her in any part."

Rachel Weisz also stars in the new movie, and Cate relished the experience of working with the acclaimed actress.

She said: "Rachel Weisz and I had been talking and emailing each other for a couple of years but we had never found a project.

"So it's interesting that this project was the one. But what she already said, which was really lovely, was that she never felt the hugeness of the project when we were on set, because we managed to create a very simple, supportive environment for the actors."

Last year, Cate admitted to being wowed by Florence's performance in the movie.

She also revealed that Scarlett Johansson - who plays the titular character - was similarly impressed by her co-star.

The director explained: "[Kevin Feige] realized that the audience would expect an origin story so, of course, we went in the opposite direction.

"And we didn’t know how great Florence Pugh would be. We knew she would be great, but we didn’t know how great.

"Scarlett is so gracious, like, ‘Oh, I’m handing her the baton.’ So it’s going to propel another female storyline."