Florence Pugh On Pretending ‘To Be Tom Cruise' In ‘Thunderbolts*'
Florence Pugh in "Thunderbolts*."
Disney/Marvel Studios
Thunderbolts* star Florence Pugh is revealing more about her death-defying Tom Cruise-like jump off the second-tallest building in the world in her new Marvel movie.
Pugh reprises her role as Yelena Belova in Thunderbolts*, which pairs the character with other Marvel antiheroes including Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Red Guardian (David Harbour), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) and John Walker (Wyatt Russell) when the Avengers aren't available to save the world.
Video of Pugh's jump off of Kuala Lumpur's Merdeka 118 was released by Marvel a couple of weeks ago and with the release of Thunderbolts* right around the corner on Friday, the actor is giving details surrounding her tremendous leap of faith in the film.
'So what I will say is that it wasn't my idea to go up there. That was already in the script, and it was already such an impressive way to start a script by having someone fall off a building,' Pugh told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview alongside Harbour on Monday.
"I was just really, really amazed that they had written that version of an opening. And then, when it got taken out, that was when I really got sassy,' Pugh added, laughing, referring to an email to Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige to put the scene back in the film.
So, with the scene back in, Pugh couldn't resist the idea of having a movie moment a la Tom Cruise in his Mission: Impossible and Top Gun movies, who has famously put his life on the line multiple times on the big screen to give audiences authentic thrills.
'Anything that Tom Cruise does, stunt-wise and acting-wise, is just totally impressive. I mean, I'd be mad if I didn't want to pretend that I was him for two seconds,' Pugh told THR. 'I don't think I'm going to be flying any machines or riding any motorbikes, but this was a perfect amount of stunt for me. So, it certainly was fun to pretend to be Tom Cruise for a few seconds.'
Florence Pugh is carrying the torch for Scarlett Johansson in her adventures in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, considering the two actors first worked together as sister characters in 2021's Black Widow.
Even though it's a prequel film set long before the events of 2019's Avengers: Endgame, where Johansson's beloved character met her demise, Black Widow signaled the end of the actor's run in the MCU.
Pugh, meanwhile, continued on as Yelena in the Marvel Disney+ series Hawkeye and leaps back onto the big screen (and off a skyscraper) with Thunderbolts*.
'My whole journey with Marvel was because of Scarlett trusting me and Scarlett wanting me to join her movie [Black Widow] six years ago,' Pugh told THR. 'So, I always miss her presence, and I always feel like it was such a mean thing to begin the journey with someone and then you never get to work with them again on it.'
Recalling how it was 'kind of wild' that Black Widow marked their first and last MCU project she worked on with Johansson, Pugh added that she's hoping her former co-star is proud of the steps she's taken in the MCU.
'I am genuinely always just hoping that she's proud," Pugh told THR. "I always have that in the back of my head, like, 'Oh, I hope she's happy that we came in.' So, I do miss her a lot on set, yes. We would have a lot of laughter.'
Rated PG-13, Thunderbolts* opens in theaters nationwide on Friday.
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