Black Widow star Florence Pugh has credited Tom Holland for encouraging her appearance in Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
Pugh puts in a memorable turn as her Marvel character Yelena Belova, who meets Peter Parker while in her ‘office’ — a New York bathhouse. It’s a brilliant scene, and one of the movie’s best. Not only is it full of humor, but it feels like a natural connection between two Marvel superheroes who now live in close proximity.
Discussing her appearance in the $2.5 billion success while appearing on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Pugh says the idea of her appearing in the film was kickstarted by Holland himself years earlier. When asked by a journalist which Marvel character he’d like to see Spidey hang out with next, Holland responded that he wanted to work with Pugh. And, from there, the idea of Yelena appearing the film gathered momentum.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day – Our Biggest Burning Questions
“This all happened because of Tom,” Pugh explained. “Years ago when I had just begun my relationship with Marvel and Black Widow had come out, and Yelena obviously wasn’t as big as all of the other big superheroes, he [was asked,] ‘Who do you want to do the next movie with? Do you want it to be with Thor?’
“And he said, ‘No actually, I want to do it with Florence Pugh, who plays Yelena.’ And because of that, fans were so excited about the idea of it, and that started the ball rolling.”
Pugh also discussed her favorite line from the film, which is of course her back and forth with Peter Parker about big potatoes stuff. Essentially, as Yelena says, the New Avengers deal with big potatoes stuff. Peter, on the other hand, deals with small potatoes stuff instead.
“Potatoes!” Pugh concluded. “When do you get to say ‘potatoes’ to Tom Holland and it get taken seriously?”
Could we see more of Spider-Man and Yelena interacting? It’s possible. Yesterday it was reported that an extended version of Spider-Man: Brand New Day will be coming to theaters featuring additional scenes — one of which featured the long-awaited and much-discussed return of Rosario Dawson in her role as Clare Temple.Image credit: Jason Mendez/Getty Images for Netflix.
