Florence Pugh has been professionally acting since making her film debut in 2014’s The Falling, but the actress hit breakthrough status five years later when she starred in Fighting with My Family, Midsommar and Little Women. That same year, the actress was cast to play Yelena Belova in Black Widow, a role she’s since reprised in the Disney+ series Hawkeye and will do so again in the upcoming Marvel movie Thunderbolts. In the midst of that though, she recalled how various people in the indie film realm were “pissed off” she decided to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
To be clear, her professional time hasn’t entirely been taken up by Marvel since Black Widow was released both in theaters and to Disney+ subscribers in July 2021, as along with starring opposite Harry Styles in Don’t Worry Darling and lending her voice to Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, she also collected awards attention for The Wonder, which can be viewed with a Netflix subscription. Nevertheless, Pugh shared with Time the backlash she got from indie talent over her decision to appear in the MCU, saying:
So many people in the indie film world were really pissed off at me. They were like, ‘Great, now she’s gone forever.’ And I’m like, no, I’m working as hard as I used to work. I’ve always done back-to-back movies. It’s just people are watching them now. You just have to be a bit more organized with your schedule.
In other words, Florence Pugh wants to let these people, and the rest of the world, know that just because she’s playing Yelena in the MCU doesn’t mean she’s turned her back on smaller-scale filmmaking. Case in point, look at the 2023 new movie releases on her resume. We’ve already seen her perform opposite Morgan Freeman in A Good Person, the modestly-budgeted drama directed by Zach Braff, Pugh’s ex-boyfriend, and later this year, she’ll be in Oppenheimer and Dune: Part Two, two massive studio pictures. It might not be a perfect balance, but the actress is doing her best to keep her feet planted in both film areas.
As far as Florence Pugh’s next Marvel outing is concerned, her fellow cast members in Thunderbolts include Sebastian Stan, Hannah John-Kamen, Wyatt Russell, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, David Harbour, Olga Kurylenko and Harrison Ford, among others, but no specific plot details have been revealed yet. Looking back to her remaining 2023 movies, Pugh is part of Oppenheimer’s heavy-hitting cast as Jean Tatlock, and Dune: Part Two sees her playing Princess Irulan. I’d be remiss if I also didn’t mention that she is currently filming a romance movie from A24 called We Live in Time, which costars and is being executive produced by Andrew Garfield.
Oppenheimer comes out on July 21 and Dune: Part Two will follow on November 3, while Thunderbolts is currently slated for July 26, 2024. Use your Disney+ subscription to rewatch Black Widow and Hawkeye, and keep your eyes peeled on CinemaBlend for more updates on Florence Pugh’s career.
