Thunderbolts* star Florence Pugh ‘grateful' to play ‘struggling and suffering' Yelena Belova

Perth Now

01-05-2025

Florence Pugh is 'grateful' to have been given the opportunity to play 'someone who was struggling and was suffering' in 'Thunderbolts*'.
The 29-year-old actress has reprised her role as Widow agent Yelena Belova in the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) blockbuster, and has now said she is thankful to have been given the chance to play a character who tackles depression and loneliness.
Speaking with Collider, Pugh said: 'I loved that I was allowed to play someone who was struggling and was suffering. That, to me, is what I'm grateful that I get to put my mark on where we're going with the MCU.
'We got to make a movie that feels textually different. It feels strange because it is. It's a movie that isn't about the usual baddies versus goodies.
'It's actually about something very common, and it hopefully has many different parts of it that we can all see ourselves in, and that's a very cool honour to have to be a part of a movie like this.'
The 'Dune: Part Two' star added she wanted to 'create a woman that maybe we weren't expecting' with Yelena.
She explained: 'I didn't want her to be a silhouette. I wanted her to be unique and bizarre and excited for life, and have strange timing and be strangely comic.'
'Thunderbolts*' will be the third time fans get to see Yelena in action, with the character previously appearing in 20221's 'Black Widow' and the Disney+ show 'Hawkeye', and Pugh admitted the Widow agent has 'lost that excitement' seen in her first two outings in 'Thunderbolts*'.
She said: 'I think all of the charms that I loved about her in Black Widow and Hawkeye, we don't really see that in her in 'Thunderbolts*'.
'She's still funny in her own way, but she's lost that excitement, and I loved that I was allowed to do that.'
'Thunderbolts*' - which also stars Sebastian Stan, David Harbour, Wyatt Russell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus - follows the mismatched team of former villains and anti-heroes who band together for a covert mission, only to discover they've been set up and must fight for their own survival.
Pugh debuted as Yelena opposite Scarlett Johansson's Natasha Romanoff in 'Black Widow', and the actress is thankful that the character remains so closely connected to her big sister, who heroically died in 'Avengers: Endgame'.
The 'We Live in Time' star said: 'Natasha was her hero and her idol. She's her big sister.
'Even when she was angry at her, she never stopped loving her. So, the idea that she's gone and she never got to have that relationship that she finally got back in 'Black Widow'? If I hadn't been able to play this beat, I would've been p***** off because it's natural instincts.
'You've got to allow these characters to be human. You've got to allow them to feel. And also, the fans wouldn't have liked it.'