Florence Pugh says Tom Holland deserves the credit for her appearance as Yelena Belova in “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” a claim she made on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” on Monday.
“This all happened because of Tom,” Pugh told Fallon. She traced the cameo to a red-carpet interview about five years ago, when someone asked Holland which star he wanted beside him in a future film. Pugh could not recall the names of the superheroes the interviewer offered as options, though she said they were all major ones, such as Thor. Holland skipped them and named her and her character instead. Fans embraced the idea, she said, and the studio took note.
Yelena appears briefly in Holland’s fourth solo Spider-Man film, in a comic scene. She hands Peter Parker advice and information from her unusual “office” in a Russian bathhouse in New York. Pugh told Fallon that she improvised a fair amount that day and that keeping the scene secret proved difficult. Her summary of the shoot was blunt: “I was in a bath with Tom all day.”
She picked her favorite line, too. It comes from Yelena’s exchange with Peter, in which the New Avengers handle “big potatoes” problems while he deals with “small potatoes.” Pugh joked that few actors get to say “potatoes” to Holland and have it taken seriously.
The cameo extends a run for the character. Pugh introduced Yelena in 2021’s “Black Widow,” then played her in the Disney+ series “Hawkeye” and the 2025 film “Thunderbolts*.” She returns in “Avengers: Doomsday,” and also stars in the Netflix miniseries “East of Eden” and in “Dune: Part Three.”
“Brand New Day” opened July 31 to largely positive reviews, which praised Holland’s performance and a more grounded, character-driven story. Variety puts its haul at $2.49 billion. An extended cut with added scenes is headed to theaters, and reports say it restores the return of Rosario Dawson as Claire Temple. Whether Peter and Yelena share more screen time is open. Pugh did not say.
