SimplyAbuDhabi XLVII

Our 3 Questions for Florence Pugh Simply Abu Dhabi: You made your mark through understated roles in art-house-type films. What was it like to star in your first blockbuster action film, Thunderbolts ? Florence Pugh: Fun! But like more serious films, what we’re really trying to figure out is why we want to tell the story, where these characters all are at, why they’re having such a hard time, and how do they together deal with their own issues at the same time, plus deal with the mission that they’re on. Once you start looking into that, you then start looking into everybody’s history, humour, love, and light. And hopefully you then end up getting quite a good bunch of misfits doing quite a lot of stupid stuff for a whole movie! (laughs) Like jumping off the world’s second-tallest building? They almost didn’t shoot that, but I said ‘Of course we are! We have to do that!’. But it obviously wouldn’t have been possible without every single person, doing everything needed, to make it as safe as possible. We did it probably, nine times, and I remember going home and thinking, ‘Oh, I allowed myself to do that? That was so stupid!’ (laughs). The mental control I had to have that day - that was its own superpower. But I’m so proud that I did it. Why would it better to go to the Thunderbolts than the Avengers for a mission? (laughs) We try really hard. We’re going to find a really awful way of doing it. There will be plenty of broken walls. But we will get it done with style. 130 | Simply Abu Dhabi