Marvel's upcoming Black Widow, helmed by Cate Shortland, will give viewers insight into the genesis of Natasha Romanoff's complex relationship with fellow spy and assassin Yelena Belova.
Florence Pugh, who will portray Belova in the film, answered a few questions for Marvel's Black Widow: The Official Movie Special book, including how she felt about joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe and what she had to say about her character in Black Widow.
Yelena is "the annoying little sister that says everything that comes to her mind with no consequences," Pugh revealed. "When we meet her she is kind of discovering the world in a new light. She is hurt and complicated and acts out."
Belova, the second hero in the modern Marvel universe to adopt the moniker "Black Widow," is a product of the Red Room just like Romanoff, who had first claimed the name. Despite the two characters having a somewhat checkered past outside of the MCU (Belova had been hired to assassinate the first Black Widow), Shortland's film presents the pair as being a lot like siblings, with Belova set to succeed Scarlett Johansson's Romanoff in her superhero role.
Apparently taking a deep plunge into the MCU by assuming the Black Widow mantle, Pugh's career before joining the comic-based franchise had been relatively tranquil, with 2019's Little Women among her most prominent credits. She spoke of the change that Black Widow represents for her, intimating, "the storyline that we are telling is very horrifying. It's about women that have been, essentially, abused and trained up to be killing machines." Alluding to the friendship of Belova and Romanoff, she explained, "At the heart of it is this very brutal journey figuring out who they are, and that's something that I wouldn't think would go together with so many amazing explosions and guns and this and that. There actually is this very sad story at the bottom of it."
Pugh elaborated further by admitting, "When she meets Scarlett's character, Natasha, Yelena is kind of rediscovering who she is after being in the Red Room for so long. So together they realize that they're both suffering in very similar ways. There is a lovely and unique friendship between the two of them because they are ultimately long-lost sisters. They repair one another and each other's holes in their lives." The Oscar-nominated Pugh will continue playing Belova in the Disney+ series, Hawkeye, starring Jeremy Renner in the title role.
Directed by Cate Shortland, Black Widow stars Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow, Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, David Harbour as Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian, O-T Fagbenle as Mason and Rachel Weisz as Melina Vostokoff. The film arrives in theaters and on Disney+ Premier Access July 9.
Source: Marvel's Black Widow: The Official Movie Special
0 Comments