Pugh and her co-star, David Harbour, spoke to JOE about the fun they had going off-script for one key scene in the Marvel blockbuster.
New Marvel movie, Thunderbolts*, is proving to be a massive box-office and critical hit – something we’d attribute to the chemistry between its lead actors and director Jake Schreier’s more emotional, grounded approach.
When JOE spoke to the blockbuster’s stars, David Harbour and Florence Pugh, we asked them about these aspects of the film.
In the run-up to Thunderbolts* release, the former had spoken about how he and his castmates were given the freedom to go off-script during shooting. Harbour had said that he felt that this approach allowed the actors to bring an added madness and spontaneity to the motley crew that makes up the Thunderbolts team.
As such, we asked Harbour if there is any line or moment that he is particularly proud of that wasn’t in the script but ended up on screen.
“I don’t know if any of it ends up onscreen,” Harbour responded, laughing, before Pugh jumped in: “It does! Can I say one?”
The actress then excitedly recounted the moment to JOE, explaining:
“When we’re in the limo and everybody’s having a go at [your character] and you’re like: ‘Everyone’s a critic today!’
“That’s my favourite line.”
Harbour then explained that even if improvised lines don’t make it into the finished project, improvisation still has many benefits – chief among these is keeping actors’ spirits high even during difficult days on set.
On this, the actor said: “Even if it makes it or it doesn’t make it, there’s something about the energy on the day. That makes the day, if you have that freedom.
“Even if you know you’re not going to use it as a director, when you let your actors explore and then let them come back to what the written word is, it just gives us so much more ownership and so much more joy to play and surprise each other.
“That was part of the fun. I remember in that limo, it was really hot. We were in Moab, Utah, in the middle of the desert.”
Confirming this, Pugh added: “It was so hot! We were all wearing supersuits, sweating. No air conditioning.”
“It’s like 100 degrees,” Harbour stated. “I’m wearing a helmet. But yeah, we were just laughing our asses off just at the ingenuity of Wyatt [Russell] saying ridiculous things and all of us just being silly.
“And it just emphasised that camaraderie and that chemistry between the team that I feel really does crackle in this movie. It brought us all closer.”
Adopting a New York accent to sum up his point, Harbour then said: “So yeah, even if it didn’t make it into the movie, who cares?”
We also asked the pair about working with director Jake Schreier (Beef) and co-writer Joanna Calo (The Bear) on Thunderbolts*.
In particular, we were curious about what specific qualities the director and writer brought to the film, given that the two had never worked on a project of this size before.
It’s also worth noting that Thunderbolts* focus on the emotions and inner lives of its characters feels very different to many other superhero movies in a great way.
In response to JOE’s question, Pugh said: “Everything. [Schreier and Calo] brought everything. The reason why it feels like a different texture is because that was completely planned for.
“When you put someone like Jake in charge of a massive movie like this, one would hope that he’s going to put his stamp on it.
“He was unbelievably direct from the very very beginning that he wanted to make a real movie with real story lines and real emotion and wanted to really look at who these people are and why they feel a certain way.
“So yeah, that was completely them, the reason why it has that texture is because of all of the amazing people that made this movie. They wanted to do something different, and they achieved it.”
You can also read Pugh’s comments about jumping off the world’s second-tallest building for Thunderbolts* here, as well as Harbour’s comments about the finale of Stranger Things here.
Thunderbolts* is in cinemas now.
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