Thunderbolts* involves its group of rag-tag anti-heroes lacking purpose in their lives, and nowhere is that clearer for Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova than in that death-defying opening scene, which sees Pugh jump off the second-highest skyscraper in the world.
Rather than being suited up in her sleek Black Widow costume, Pugh is wearing casual clothes, and she looks pretty miserable. Later, she explains to a captured employee of the lab she’s infiltrating why she hasn’t been feeling so great (though, he’s not really listening).
As Red Guardian actor David Harbour explained in a press conference attended by GamesRadar+, though, Pugh actually changed that scene for the better.
“Florence came in with such strong ideas and such strong ownership of the character and of this arc,” Harbour explained. “And she’s such a brilliant actress, universally acknowledged, and so to have a big studio movie like this allow her that freedom – we even talked about the initial [scene]. Like, you’re supposed to put her in the suit all the time, when she jumps off the building. And Florence came in and was like, ‘I want to be in a weird sweatsuit and look terrible and just say that ‘Something’s wrong with me.’ That allowance of us to have ownership: and we kept rewriting scenes, some of which are in the movie, and some of which very much aren’t in the movie.
“There’s a nice draft that Wyatt [Russell] and I have of a certain scene which we can’t release to you that is absolutely terrible writing, and yet we sat down all day and went for that,” he continued. “Jake [Schreier, director] graciously said, ‘Please, no one’s saying these words.’ But I will say just the desire to have the input from us, and the desire to have the input of our experience, of our talent: not a lot of times on movie sets, you get big movies that are asking that of you. And there is such a frothing in the mouth quality of, I think, good actors to tell good stories and to reach for the deeper parts of themselves and to want to play those things, that it truly is a boon.”
Thunderbolts* is in theaters now. For even more, check out our Thunderbolts* review for our spoiler-free verdict on the Marvel Phase 5 movie, or head to our guide on the Thunderbolts* post-credits scene for our breakdown of what it all means.
