The Natasha Romanoff depicter reveals advice she gave to her co-star, telling the Marvel newcomer to pace herself when it comes to the grueling movie stunts.
- July 2, 2021
AceShowbiz - Scarlett Johansson told her "Black Widow" co-star Florence Pugh to pace herself when it came to the "gruelling" stunts.
The two actresses appear as Natasha Romanoff and Yelena Belova, respectively, in the highly-anticipated Marvel Cinematic Universe blockbuster, and the 36-year-old star revealed the one thing she wished she'd have known when she started out in the action-packed movies she has passed on to the newcomer.
"The physical work is so gruelling, and you can really burn out on that stuff," she told the Hollywood Reporter. "I did say to Florence in the beginning that this is a long job. And selling things - the emotional grit behind it - is a much more valuable way to spend your time than actually trying to be a professional athlete."
"The whole stunt department are incredible athletes, and you're never going to reach their 16 years of professionalism, or whatever, in four weeks. So that's the one piece of advice that I wish I had gotten, which, eventually, Sam Jackson gave me and now I pass through myself to Florence. 'Don't kill yourself, kid!' Sam Jackson said to me; it was something like that. So I took his advice."
Meanwhile, Florence insisted she wasn't as "intimidated" by the stunts department as she had gotten into the swing of things when she played Saraya "Paige" Knight in the 2019 wrestling biopic, "Fighting With My Family", which is based on the early career of WWE superstar Paige.
"Oh my goodness. I'm so grateful for all of the work that we did on Fighting with My Family," Florence said. "I felt like I wasn't so intimidated by the stunts department simply because of that."
"Whenever you have to be physical in any way, it is intimidating. You essentially want to look like a cool person, but most of the time, you don't. So you have to learn how to look good while moving, and with Fighting with My Family, that was such a silly, fun and wonderful gig that it really took off any fear of movement and action in the future. So it just made me really excited because I do really enjoy action."
