In 2019, Disney invited Collider and a few other journalists to London to visit the set of their new MCU installment filmBlack Widowwhile it was in production. At long last, the time has finally come to share what we learned.
Black Widowhits theaters on July 14, 2025 (as well as being simultaneously released on Disney+ via Premier Access), after nearly a year of being shelved due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We were fortunate enough to speak with several people who worked on the film, includingFlorence Pugh, who plays Yelena Belova in the film.
We spoke with Pugh about entering the Marvel Cinematic Universe during Phase 4, filming fight scenes, and her relationship with the original Black Widow (both on-and-off screen), Scarlett Johansson.
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What’s your relationship with Nat?
FLORENCE PUGH: What’s my relationship with Nat? Confusing. Bratty. Emotional. Sisterly relationship. Exactly what you’d expect a younger sister to be. Yelena is deeply annoying and pretty much takes the mick out of everything Natasha does, but fundamentally they have a very unique and strong relationship that drives them through the film.
What do you think of her Avengers friends?
PUGH: I don’t know what Yelena thinks about them. It has really been focused on, that story. It’s really been more about our family and where we came from and how we are broken and how we exit. I’m sure there’s room for all of that somewhere.
How’s your relationship with Alexi and Melina?
PUGH: Equally all the same. So, we meet these characters as they’ve kind of developed as adults away from one another and figuring out their relationships as grownups is, obviously, tricky because they have the same patterns as when they were kids or when they were parents and figuring all of that out was so much fun. Especially with David and Rachel. They’re like this big, bonkers, mad, loud Russian family and they have a lot of love for each other.
What do you love about your character? What do you think she asks about the Marvel Universe?
PUGH: What I love about Yelena — and the Yelena that we’ve created, even in terms of the costume — is there’s no messing. There’s no bells and whistles with her. She kind of gets the job done and, whether that’s fighting someone or verbally abusing someone, it’s all pretty straightforward and pretty Bolshie and I’ve loved playing her. She’s ready to fight whether it’s argument or physical. There’s no stopping her.
What’s the experience been like making your first Marvel movie?
PUGH: I mean, I’ve never been on a film of this scale. Obviously there’s been others, but it’s incredibly daunting coming up to this and thinking what prep should you be doing in your own time and what’s the prep that Marvel are expecting you to do? How physical are the roles? And that’s something that I definitely had no idea what they were going to expect from me and actually Scarlett was super helpful with all of that and sitting there and listening to what she said about the last 9 years of her, I suppose, career in this Marvel Universe.
And you’ve picked some incredible films and you’ve already got a following, but how ready are you for your life to completely change and become one of the most recognizable people on the planet?
PUGHY: You know what’s funny is when it happened I was like, “Oh, great! I’m going to be in a Marvel film!” and since being in a Marvel film every single person has asked me that question and now I’m like, “Oh, God! What is going to happen?” I don’t know. I think it’s a wonderful thing to have followers and have fans and for people to respect my work and respect the fact that I am now part of the Marvel Universe and I suppose I’ll just have to see. But I’ve always been a very honest and open person with interviews and with fans and I hope I can continue doing that and it’s only wonderful to be a part of such a big and growing family.
So, as Yelena was there any female superhero you kind of looked to or helped you embody the character?
PUGH: That’s a really interesting question because it’s true that there are films — I grew up onCharlie’s Angelsand I know that there are no similarities between this and that at all, but the very fact that I got to go, coming into this, “Yeah! I’m a girl and I get to do high kicks!” and actually one of Yelena’s kind of strengths is the fact that she does really good high kicks!
What are Yelena’s feelings toward the Black Widow training program?
PUGH: Good question. I think that’s one of the heartbreaks about this film is that it is essentially about women that have been abused. Whether it’s about a system or whether it’s about physical abuse. They’ve all been in some way trapped and I think this film is the realization of the life that was taken from them and that’s how Natasha and Yelena start repairing, I suppose. So, I don’t think she’s too happy about that. Then again it’s the only thing she’s known, so I don’t know.
What’s it been like doing the fight sequences?
PUGH: Amazing. So, I love the stunts to this. It’s probably my favorite part to this role and I fell in love with kind of like movement and action and stunts when I did a wrestling film,Fighting with My Family,so coming onto this I knew that it was intimidating, but I really enjoy it, and actually the stunt team are so excited when you want to do more. They really, really want you to do as much as possible. Within the first two weeks of getting the job I was in the warehouse learning how to, you know, kick from one of the best kickboxers around and it’s amazing how much they want you to enjoy and do and they will create fights that you are capable of doing if you’re up for it and that was so exciting. I mean, yeah, I’ve always thought that it was a much bigger picture and actually to be in there and really shoving Scarlett Johnsson against the kitchen counter was the first day I got to working with her and we’d actually not met previous. It was like, “Hi, I’m going to beat you now!” but it was great and we fell in love during that fight because it was just so messy and it was cool.
