Black Widow star Florence Pugh has revealed the story behind a line of dialogue that ended up becoming something of a running joke in the Marvel movie, and as it turns out, the gag was only added to the script at the last minute because Pugh teased costar Scarlett Johansson for real during rehearsals.
The scene was released as part of an official clip early last month so this isn't much of a spoiler, but if you'd rather watch the movie without any knowledge of the joke in question, best stop reading now.
Early on in the film, Yelena makes fun of Natasha for the signature fighting pose she's struck several times in previous MCU adventures, and Pugh revealed that this came about when the stunt team asked her to come up with a pose of her own.
"When we were in rehearsals, I remember the stunt team was like, 'So Florence, what are we going to do about your pose?' And I was like, 'Oh God, I have to think about a pose!?'" Pugh told THR. "And they were like, 'Yeah, because you know Scarlett's is this." And I was like, 'I know! Who would actually land like that? That's ridiculous!'"
The pose may look cool (depending on your perspective!), but the team reportedly told Pugh that if Johansson actually landed like that in real life, she'd break her spine. "Eric [Pearson], the writer, was on set and was like, 'Yep, that's going in the script!'" said Pugh.
Black Widow finds Natasha Romanoff "confronting the darker parts of her ledger when a dangerous conspiracy with ties to her past arises. Pursued by a force that will stop at nothing to bring her down, Natasha must deal with her history as a spy and the broken relationships left in her wake long before she became an Avenger. Joining Johansson and Pugh in the new feature film are David Harbour as Alexei/The Red Guardian, and Rachel Weisz as Melina."
Black Widow is set to hit theaters and Disney+ Premiere Access on July 9. You can check out our 3-star review HERE.