Florence Pugh made her MCU debut as Natasha Romanoff's (Scarlett Johansson) adoptive sister Yelena Belova in the Black Widow movie, before going on to reprise the role in the Hawkeye Disney+ series, Thunderbolts*, and Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
As the new Black Widow, Pugh will have a main role in Avengers: Doomsday as the leader of the "New Avengers," and the highly in-demand actress is also set to return as Princess Irulan in Denis Villeneuve's Dune: Part Three.
Pugh is clearly aware that she is now in a position where she no longer has to suffer fools on her film sets.
“Every time I work on a movie, I get more confident in the way that I can protect myself and the way that I can lead a film set, and just not stand for bullshit anymore," she tells Elle Magazine. "I’m not doing it. I’m not standing for bullshit behavior. I’m not standing for bullshit attitude. I’m not allowing for people to be rude to the crew. You just get bolder and bigger and more confident with time, and you want to be around and work with the right people. And the moment someone is making that vibe feel off, everybody feels it.”
“I don’t want to deal with messy,” she added. “It’s just about surrounding yourself with professionals who have the same way of working in mind: Show up on time, don’t be rude, don’t be a misogynist.”
Though Pugh may not necessarily be referring to any one film set or individual here, there are rumors that she was one of the actors involved in an on-set tiff with a co-star while filming Doomsday (more here).
Pugh was also asked about her recent Instagram post publicly condemning the Cornell 7, the name given online to the seven male students accused of drugging and gang raping their female classmate at Cornell University in October 2024. Instagram removed her initial post, which did not sit well with the actress.
“No one f*cking censors me. That’s just going to add fuel to the fire... I’m a woman who cares about women. I care about women I know, and I care about women I don’t know. And if we allow for stories like that to become in any way normal, then we are allowing ourselves to continue toward that destiny of abuse and rape being accepted as a norm. Rape can never ever be a conversation that we move on from. It has to be something that we look at, face-on, and we demand justice, accountability, and for the rapist to see what they have done to someone’s life. Because if we don’t, we’re accepting it. And I don’t ever, ever, ever want to live in a world where we move on from it easily.”
Finally, Pugh recommended how cinemagoers should approach next month's "Dunesday."
“Do Dune first, go have some lunch & process that, maybe have the night off to talk about it. Following day, do Avengers: Doomsday... or in the evening.”
Will you be taking her advice?
Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars were hit with significant delays last year, with Doomsday now set to arrive in theaters on December 18, 2026, and Secret Wars positioned for December 17, 2027.
Both movies will be directed by the Russo brothers, who also make their MCU return after helming Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
"Universes collide and the Multiverse Saga begins its final chapter in Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Doomsday. Beloved heroes from three distinct universes will be set on a deadly collision course and ultimately face an existential threat unlike anything they’ve ever encountered. This epic film will lay the foundation for the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe."
Doomsday will star:
Paul Rudd as Ant-Man, Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Lewis Pullman as Sentry, Florence Pugh as Yelena, Danny Ramirez as Falcon, Ian McKellen as Magneto, Sebastian Stan as Bucky, Winston Duke as M’Baku, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Kelsey Grammer as Beast, James Marsden as Cyclops, Channing Tatum as Gambit, and Wyatt Russell as U.S. Agent
Along with Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm, Rebecca Romijn as Mystique, Patrick Stewart as Professor X, Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler, Letitia Wright as Black Panther, Tenoch Huerta Mejia as Namor, Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards, Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost, Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm, David Harbour as Red Guardian, Ebon Moss-Bachrach as The Thing, Anthony Mackie as Captain America, and, of course, Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom.