Florence Pugh Praises ‘Thunderbolts*’ and Marvel for Mental Health Story: ‘It’s a Huge Deal’

Florence Pugh understands that “Thunderbolts*” is special. The actress reprises her role as Yelena Belova in the anti-hero film, which also costars Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell, David Harbour, and Hannah John-Kamen. The movie has strong themes about mental health and depression, something Pugh described as “a huge deal.”

“Oh my God, it’s massive,” she told Entertainment Weekly in an interview published Saturday. “It’s a huge deal. It’s a huge deal that that theme was made with a Marvel budget, and they cared enough about it to make it the main event. And that is so important, so important for everybody right now.”

Pugh added that she believes her Marvel debut, the 2021 film “Black Widow,” touched on the same topics. “It was the story of those girls and those women and the control that they were put under, that really made me want to be a part of that story,” she explained.

“And I was like, ‘Whoa, loads of girls are going to go and watch this movie and they’re going to be educated and inspired, and that’s so cool.’ And I feel the same with this. So many people, adults and children, are going to watch this, and if they need it, they’re going to see themselves or their friends or their partners in it, and it’s so wonderful to be able to make a movie for the masses that you know is going to be helpful.”

The movie’s director Jake Schreier, who produced and directed the first season of “Beef,” told the outlet he intentionally set out to make a different kind of Marvel movie.

“These themes are not niche anymore; that we all struggle with this and that they were universal ideas,” Schreier said. “And even if it felt scary for a big Netflix show or a Marvel movie to take that on, the audience is out there, and these aren’t things that we push away so much. They’re things that everyone confronts.”

Read the interview with Pugh and Schreir on Entertainment Weekly.

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