Florence Pugh’s E-mail to Kevin Feige Forward of ‘Thunderbolts*’ Led to an Epic 3-Method Guinness World Report

April 23, 2025

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She mentioned it could do wonders for the press tour, and right here we’re. Seems, good press just isn’t the one factor that Florence Pugh acquired after leaping off the second-tallest constructing on the planet whereas filming Marvel’s Thunderbolts*. Alongside along with her stunt double and the stunt coordinator, Pugh now has a Guinness World Report.

Based on the Thunderbolts* star, who’s reprising her position from 2021’s Black Widow and the Disney+ sequence Hawkeye, the bounce was within the script. The constructing, per Selection, is the Merdeka 118 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and stands at 2,272 toes. However as they obtained nearer to the day, it appeared just like the sequence and stunt wasn’t going to occur. It isn’t stunning, seeing how tough and costly it’s to insure placing a star of her caliber in such a harmful state of affairs. However Pugh was trying ahead to it and wasn’t going to take no for a solution.

Marvel Studios Didn’t Need Pugh To Do the ‘Thunderbolts*’ Stunt

So, the Yelena actress appealed on to Kevin Feige. She used her greatest speak-to-the-manager expertise, based on an interview with Fandango, “obtained on all of the emails,” and went above as many heads as doable to be able to get the sequence accepted. “FP,” a.okay.a. how Pugh refers to herself, was going to be thrown off of a constructing or be damned!

I used to be being a sassy Karen, emailing Kevin and saying ‘it’s going to do wonders for the press tour. We now have to do that! We’re going to have three girls break three completely different Guinness World Information, and we’ll do that and this.’ I needed to carry on pushing, after which they had been like, ‘okay, if you wish to fall off the second-tallest constructing, we’ll determine it out for you.’ I don’t thoughts heights. I fairly like them and luxuriate in them, however that was an entire completely different ballgame and insane. The psychological management I had to try this day was its personal superpower.

Now, positive sufficient, three completely different girls have in actual fact damaged data! She specified to Harper’s Bazaar that these girls are herself, her double, and the feminine stunt coordinator. Based on IMDb, Sarah Irwin is Pugh’s double, and Heidi Moneymaker is probably going the stunt coordinator she’s speaking about. Enjoyable reality: Moneymaker was Scarlett Johansson‘s double on lots of the Avengers films, and her sister has labored beforehand as Brie Larson‘s double for Captain Marvel.

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Making the inconceivable, doable!

No shade to Tom Cruise, however it is heartening to see Pugh acknowledging the stunt group as nicely. She did the rattling factor herself, however she’s not afraid to say that she wasn’t alone. (To be completely honest to Cruise, he’d be the primary to acknowledge the onerous collaborative work that the crew does on a movie.) However the fame that he does his personal stunts alone persists!

The ‘Thunderbolts*’ Stunt Is Not Oscar Worthy… But!

The newly introduced Academy Award for stunt design will not be given out till 2028. So, tragically, the group who made this occur must stay with solely the Guinness World Report for now. However simply possibly, if the identical group works with Pugh on Avengers: Secret Wars, which is ready to be launched in 2027, this Thunderbolts* stunt and the press it garnered will be the beginning of a years-long marketing campaign for Oscar gold. They will should high this by some means, proper?

It is fantastic to see stunts celebrated like this regardless—something that will get individuals enthusiastic about film making and seeing films on the most important display screen doable is a optimistic. One of many causes that audiences have gotten fatigued by the MCU, superhero films normally, and/or franchise blockbusters is a perceived over-reliance on digital results. Which may be true in some cases, however sensible results aren’t useless. Pugh was sensible, not solely to insist on the stunt but additionally to make noise about this wild stunt and wonderful effort. Hopefully it’ll encourage a return to old style movie-making throughout the board!