Florence Pugh Convinced MCU Boss to Let Her Do Dangerous Stunt for ‘Thunderbolts*’

Florence Pugh has always been known as someone dedicated to her craft, but her dedication went to a whole new level when she joined the MCU.

The British actress, who first appeared as Yelena Belova in Black Widow (where her character famously poked fun at Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff’s “superhero pose”) and reprised the role in Hawkeye, will once again portray Yelena in Thunderbolts*, much to the anticipation of fans. If her acting chops and outspokenness about important social issues isn’t enough to endear her to you, recent reports suggest that Pugh convinced the powers that be at Marvel Studios to let her perform a dangerous stunt in the upcoming movie, rather than relying on CGI. Talk about dedication! 

Superhero movies are, of course, full of adrenaline-fueled action scenes and death-defying stunts. So, naturally, Pugh would want to do it all, much to the horror of Kevin Feige, President of Marvel Studios. 

In an interview with Fandango (via Movie Web), Florence Pugh, along with her Thunderbolts co-stars David Harbour, Wyatt Russell, Sebastian Stan, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, discussed the stunts in the movie. They unanimously voted Pugh’s jump off the second-tallest skyscraper in the world in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, as the most dangerous. 

Pugh shared that Feige was adamant about her not doing the scene for real, but she fought tooth and nail to be allowed to do it. She said, “So I got on all the emails. Because it was in the script, and slowly, as we got closer and closer to shooting, they were like, 'Yeah, we don't think it's gonna happen. It's just gonna be a crazy insurance ordeal.' And I was like, 'What the-! Of course we are. We have to do that.” 

She revealed that she tried to sell Feige the idea using a “sassy Karen” marketing technique and how her doing her own stunts is wonderful PR. Her emails to him read: “Kevin, this is going to do wonders for the press tour, we have to do this!” She added, “And I just had to keep on pushing, and then we were like, 'Okay, if you want to fall off the second-tallest building in the world, we'll figure that out.'" 

Check out the behind-the-scenes of Pugh’s dangerous stunt below. 

Thunderbolts* is scheduled for a theatrical release on May 2. Mark your calendars!