Florence Pugh has done a lot of things on-screen. She’s taken down bad guys, delivered Oscar-worthy monologues, and stared while a cult burns her boyfriend while wearing a flower crown. But during filming for Marvel’s anti-hero team-up Thunderbolts*, her stunt which she literally begged the studio bosses to let her do it instead of CGI, promptly gave her a mortality check.
Florence Pugh: “Well You F–ed It. You’re Gonna Die”
In a recent interview with Who What Wear, the 29-year-old actress who reprised her Black Widow role as Yelena Belova for Thuderbolts*, shared her experience jumping off the second-tallest building in the world in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Pugh recounted, “The moment I jumped, every time, my brain went, ‘Oh, well, you f–ed it. You’re gonna die.’”
The British actress had to shoot the jump nine times over the course of two days. She did admit that she did not jump all the way down the 2,227 feet of the Merdeka 118. She jumped around six feet off of the building before the crew pulled her back up.
“I can basically pretend to myself not to listen to my instincts,” she explained about how she managed to do the stunt nine times.
Despite calling the stunt “insane” and “mad,” she said that she “loved doing it.”
What’s Next for Her?
Thunderbolts*, which premiered on April 22 in London, England, received positive reviews from critics and already grossed $11 million. Pugh is set to appear again as Yalena for 2026’s Avengers: Doomsday. After playing a superhero, she hopes to play a Western role soon.
She told the magazine, “I want to just be like a really greasy, gritty head. I want to have, like, mountain fluff on my face – like an earth person, a person from the earth.” Aside from acting, Pugh admitted that she’s also thought about writing and directing her own projects: “I think my writing, directing era is probably getting closer and closer.”
Thunderbolts* is now showing in theaters across the U.S.
