“It’s okay to be relied on and to rely on other people. You don’t have to go through life on your own”: Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, David Harbour and fellow cast and creatives on Thunderbolts*
An emotionally vulnerable close to the fifth phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Jake Schreier’s Thunderbolts* explores profound topics, including grief and mental health. With Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova at the forefront, the film follows a mismatched group of antiheroes forced to work together to save the world from impending darkness. As the age of the old Avengers comes to an end, this team of miscreants stars Pugh alongside Sebastian Stan, David Harbour, Wyatt Russell, Hannah John-Kamen and Lewis Pullman.
The cast, including Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Geraldine Viswanathan, with director Schrier and producer Kevin Feige, all sat down for a global press conference ahead of the release of Thunderbolts*. Pugh kicked off with her thoughts on the opening scene and what it meant to Yelena. She shared how the voiceover, combined with Yelena’s action,s is an insight into her mental state, and Pugh made suggestions to help elevate the stakes. She stripped Yelena of her armour and wore simple sweatpants to add “texture” and highlight the character’s reckless behaviour. “When I read the script and I opened the first page – it was such an impressive way to start the movie. It allowed me to understand where she was.”
For a movie that touches on suicidal ideation, that first sequence is the perfect jumping-off point to introduce the audience to the characters’ plights. Pullman’s Bob, for example, is the embodiment of the darker and more intimate themes of the feature. There was a great balancing act for the actor in creating a conversation around depression and suppression while not sounding too much like a “PSA”. To him, “[The] big goal in this film was to be like – ‘all right, let’s get rid of that weird quaky feeling that you get when you bring it up and when you talk about it.’”
Another key moment is the revelation of Valentina’s traumatic backstory. “I’m referring to her as sort of an anti-villain, the way these guys are antiheroes,” said Louis-Dreyfus regarding the film’s main antagonist. She went on to elaborate that, while Valentina’s past does not excuse the things that she does, the character certainly believes that she’s doing the right thing. According to Louis-Dreyfus, what interested her most about expanding the role was the opportunity to reinvent Valentina and dissect in a nonjudgmental way her thirst for power.
Two others that are reintroduced in Thunderbolts* from previous MCU projects are John-Kamen’s Ghost and Russell’s John Walker. For John-Kamen, the journey of Ghost is rooted in the understanding that it’s okay to need someone and to be needed by someone. She spoke a lot about the found-family aspect of it because, as an actor, it deeply resonated with her. “It’s okay to be relied on and to rely on other people. You don’t have to go through life on your own. Finding a family – you deserve it. You do deserve to be loved.”
Russell, on the other hand, focused more on John as an antithesis to Steve Rogers’s Captain America. This was a notion that, to him, mirrored the progression of modern society: “Steve Rogers was born out of World War II, and he was the guy who jumped on the grenade for selfless reasons. Well, John Walker will jump on the grenade. But he wants to jump on the grenade so someone will film it and put it on Instagram and make him a national hero. They’re not completely selfless reasons, and that, I think, is reflective of society today.”
With 17 years and 36 films in mind, the MCU has impacted all members of the cast in one way or another. For Viswanathan, it was a full circle moment: “It’s funny, in this movie, I have the line, ‘I was in high school when the Avengers came.’ And I really was in high school when I watched that movie with my friends at the theatre at the mall! So, it’s very surreal and full circle to now be in one of these movies.” Pullman also confessed to making friends and lasting memories because of the MCU. He called the sensation a “powerful effect”.
As the longest-running member of the franchise among the cast, Stan related his time with the cinematic universe to the lessons he learned with Bucky Barnes. He referred to the character as “a sibling” he never had and highlighted his affinity for having a character he could continually go back and apply his real-life learnings to. “I think we’ve both been learning from each other for 15 years,” he said. In Harbour’s case, he expressed gratitude to the studio for giving them creative freedom, from listening to Pugh’s costume suggestions to scenes he and Russell drafted that never made it to the final cut. “The desire to have the input from us and the desire to have the input of our experience, of our talent – [there aren’t] a lot of times on sets you get big movies that are asking that of you.”
Mae Trumata
Thunderbolts* is released nationwide on 1st May 2025.
Watch the trailer for Thunderbolts* here:
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