Why Zach Braff Wanted to Write a Movie for Ex Florence Pugh

Zach Braff‘s relationship with Florence Pugh may be over, but he’s not going to scrub her out of his life.

In fact, the Scrubs alum had nothing but kinds words about his ex—who stars in his latest directorial feature A Good Person—when he shared the story of how their movie came to be. Describing Pugh a “next-level actress,” Zach said he specifically had the 27-year-old in mind when he first penned the script.

“I’m just in awe of her talent and I said, ‘I wanna write this for Florence. What I’m writing is really gonna be challenging and she’s incredible,'” he recalled to Entertainment Tonight. “It wasn’t for your average actors—I couldn’t have written the part for myself.”

Braff, 47, went on to explain how he envisioned Florence acting “opposite some legend that everyone’s talking about” while writing the movie. That dream casting became a reality when Morgan Freeman signed onto the project.

“It’s just fascinating,” Braff said of the two stars. “So many actors, including myself, think you have to do so much but you watch Florence and Morgan and they can just do a subtle turn of the head and it’s brilliant.”