Florence Pugh surprisingly has taken a page from Tom Cruise for the upcoming Marvel Studios flick “Thunderbolts*” as the British actress has revealed that she had to convince Kevin Feige to allow her to jump off the second tallest building in the world while shooting a stunt in Malaysia after they got cold feet.
That building is Merdeka 118 in Kuala Lumpur, which is an impressive 118 stories, and she shared with Fandango during an interview how she had to convince the studio to let her do it despite worrisome insurance issues and the danger involved. For some context, Cruise’s “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol” stunt on The Burj Khalifa was 163 stories.
READ MORE: Marvel Announces ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Vanessa Kirby, Kelsey Grammer As Beast & Dozens More
“I got on all the emails. It was in the script, and then slowly as we got closer and closer to shooting, they said they don’t think it’s going to happen because it’s a crazy insurance ordeal and obviously we’re not going to throw [me] off the second tallest building in the world,” Pugh told Fandango of Marvel’s cautionary reaction to the stunt. “I was like what the f**k? Of course we are! We have to do that.”
“I was being a sassy Karen emailing Kevin [Feige] and saying it’s going to do wonders for the press tour…I had to keep on pushing, and then they’re like, ‘Okay, if you want to fall off the second tallest building, we’ll figure it out for you.’ I don’t mind heights. I quite like them and enjoy them, but that was a whole different ballgame and insane. The mental control I had to do that day was its own superpower,” Pugh said of pestering Feige to allow her to do the jump.
We can only assume that Pugh’s Yelena Belova is eventually going to take over the Black Widow mantle from Scarlett Johansson (who has downplayed an MCU return), but we’re unsure if a “Black Widow” or “Thunderbolts*” sequel will be coming anytime soon, given Marvel’s slow-down on productions. But hopefully, whatever Pugh does next for Marvel, they’ll allow her to do more stunts.
Also appearing the in the latest MCU pic are Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell, Lewis Pullman, David Harbour, Hannah John-Kamen, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Olga Kurylenko, and Geraldine Viswanathan. “Thunderbolts*” will head into theaters on May 2, and we’ll see a bulk of the cast returning for “Avengers: Doomsday“ that will be helmed by The Russo Brothers.
Support independent movie journalism to keep it alive. Sign up for The Playlist Newsletter. All the content you want and, oh, right, it’s free.
You can watch that exchange between Fandango and Florence Pugh alongside a “Thunderbolts*” featurette video that focuses on “The Jump” with director Jake Schreier on hand and a clip featuring the stunt from the film.
