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Florence Pugh has never shied away from high-risk acting roles, but her latest leap for Marvel’s Thunderbolts shatters the boundaries of action superstardom. The Oscar-nominated actress recently revealed she fought with Marvel Studios to be permitted to jump off Merdeka 118 in Malaysia—the second-tallest building in the world—because of insurance issues linked to the film.
Originally written into the movie, the stunt was all but cut when Marvel suits complained about the logistics and danger. Yelena Belova fan favorite Pugh has now revealed that the studio told her it was too dangerous, with insurance issues making them unlikely to let her proceed. But she wasn’t having it.
“I started emailing Kevin Feige as a sassy Karen,” Pugh joked in an interview last month. Her message? The prank would bring enormous press to the film. She even hinted that she and two other women would be breaking Guinness World Records for the film, although she would not reveal what ones.
Marvel eventually caved. Pugh performed the leap with a winch system and safety cables, exiting the tower multiple times during filming. Behind-the-scenes footage of the leap was posted last week and quickly went viral, with fans praising her dedication.
The experience was not painless. Pugh described the psychological toll of the leap, saying she was so drained from the stunt that she fell into what she called a “three-hour coma” when she arrived back.
Director Jake Schreier rationalized that the stunt was to increase stakes right from the first scene of the movie. It is also indicative of Marvel changing its strategy in promoting films to lean more toward spectacle and reality after muted reactions to recent works like Captain America: Brave New World.
With Thunderbolts premiering on May 2, 2025, Pugh’s leap might be exactly the kind of buzz Marvel desires. The film also stars David Harbour, Sebastian Stan, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and involves a rogue squad of antiheroes on a deadly mission.
Florence Pugh is not Tom Cruise, but she’s certainly building an argument to be Marvel’s next high-profile stunt heroine.
