Florence Pugh is reflecting on Yelena Belova’s direction in Thunderbolts** while recalling incidents from a challenging production, including a scorpion encounter and cast injuries on set. The Marvel film, directed by Jake Schreier, features a team of conflicted operatives led by Yelena and includes Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Red Guardian (David Harbour), John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), and Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko).
At last year’s San Diego Comic-Con, Pugh revealed she completed a base jump from Merdeka 118, the second-tallest building in the world. The Malaysia stunt, filmed alongside longtime Marvel stunt coordinator Heidi Moneymaker and base jumper Katie Hansen, was not for individual recognition. “That day in Malaysia was an achievement for all of us,” she said. “We all got to say that we worked on that stunt, and what a powerful way to start a movie.”
Production also involved real-world threats. During a desert scene, Pugh unknowingly lay on a scorpion nest. “Someone just comes and pats my leg,” she recalled. “And I’m like, ‘What’s going on?’ And they’re like, ‘There was a scorpion on your leg.’” Her combat boots prevented a sting, though the crew was told to reset the scene on the same spot. “We were like, ‘But what about the other ones?!’” she said.
Wyatt Russell shared a separate incident involving a head injury during a chase sequence. “I split my head open,” he said. Harbour had warned about the hazard, describing a set piece that required ducking into a narrow opening. “I looked over and blood was just spewing everywhere,” Harbour said. Russell later received staples to close the wound.
The film explores deeper emotional currents than earlier Marvel entries. Yelena begins the story detached and weighed down. According to Pugh, this arc marks a shift. “We’ve made a movie that is about something that we all struggle with,” she said. “We need to open up. We need to connect.”
Her character’s compassion remains central. “She’s someone that really understands what it feels like to need help,” Pugh said, pointing to Yelena’s past support of characters like Kate Bishop and a pet hamster named Fanny Longbottom. “Even though she’s going through her own trauma in this movie, she still wants to help.”
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One pivotal scene between Yelena and Red Guardian was significantly altered. Originally written as a lighter moment, Pugh and Harbour reworked the exchange to address their characters’ grief over Natasha Romanoff. “We can’t have these two people be pretending as if the last however many years didn’t happen,” she said. “They have to shout at each other.”
The actors collaborated with Schreier to write the scene from scratch, replacing surface-level irritation with raw conversation. “Grief is a painful, embarrassing and horrible hole that you get stuck in,” Pugh said. “They need a moment to shout at each other and tell each other they love each other.”
Pugh emphasized how much she values working with Harbour. “He’s so big and he’s so loud and emotional,” she said. “It was really cool to be able to have a fight. Basically, they just need to have a cuddle.”
Looking ahead, Pugh commented on the expanding Marvel cast set to appear in Avengers: Doomsday. She reacted with enthusiasm to the news of actors like Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Pedro Pascal, and Paul Rudd joining the ensemble. “The idea that all of those people are going to be in the same movie is nutso sauce,” she said.
As Yelena steps into a new role within the Marvel world, Pugh hopes to bring back parts of her earlier performance. “I hope that she feels fulfilled, like she has purpose,” she said. “And I hope that we get to see some of her light and her charm and her color again.”
