Florence Pugh was determined to perform a dangerous stunt for Thunderbolts* and said she turned into “a sassy Karen” to make it happen.
While filming the Marvel Studios movie, Pugh recalled the lengths she went through to follow the script and jump off the Merdeka 118 tower in Malaysia.
“It was in the script, and then slowly as we got closer and closer to shooting, they were like, ‘Yeah, we don’t think it’s gonna happen, it’s just gonna be a crazy insurance ordeal, and obviously we’re not going to throw FP off the second-tallest building in the world,’” Pugh said in an interview with Fandango.
The building is 2,227 feet tall and is the second-tallest structure in the world, only behind the Burj Khalifa. Determined to do it, Pugh contacted Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige to make her request.
“I was like, ‘What the f**k, of course we are. We have to do that!’” she said. “So I was being a sassy Karen just emailing Kevin and being like, ‘Kevin, this is going to do wonders for the press tour, we have to do this!’”
After “pushing” to make it happen, producers let her do the stunt and told her, “Ok, if you want to fall off the second-tallest building in the world, we’ll figure that out for you.”
Florence Pugh in a scene from ‘Thunderbolts’
Marvel Entertainment
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Although Pugh said she doesn’t “mind heights” and noted that she “enjoys them,” being on top of the building “was a whole different ballgame that was insane,” adding, “The mental control I had to do that day was like, that was its own super power.”
Pugh stars in Thunderbolts*, reprising the role of Yelena Belova, the character she originated in 2021’s Black Widow. The film, which is set to release on May 2, also stars Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell, Olga Kurylenko, Lewis Pullman, Geraldine Viswanathan, David Harbour, Hannah John-Kamen, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
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Pugh will again reprise the Yelena role in Avengers: Doomsday, which is currently filming, and is set to be released on May 1, 2026.
Watch the full interview below.
