According to Comicbook, Marvel Studios has a habit of looking for “undiscovered” or “new” talent for their projects, especially within the indie film community. Given that many of Florence Pugh’s earlier works such as Midsommar and Lady Macbeth were successful indie films that showed off her immense skills, it comes as no surprise that Marvel would cast her within Black Widow as Yelena.
Unfortunately, in a recent interview with TIME, Pugh recounts feeling labeled as a traitor to her roots by the indie film community for starring in these big blockbuster films. She stated, “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.”
Pugh has recently been working in smaller-budget films such as Don’t Worry Darling, The Wonder, and A Good Person, and she has acquired parts in big-name projects like Dune: Part Two and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer.
She states, “… I think there’s beauty in all types of those films. There’s beauty in the massive, epic storylines like Dune, like Marvel, like even Oppenheimer that I did. They’re amazing, mega-movies. And then there’s also beauty in all these little ones that not everyone is going to see, but are going to affect the right person at the right time. I’ve never, ever only thought that I was going to just do one type of movie. I’ve always known that I want to dabble in all areas.”
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