‘Black Widow’ Star Florence Pugh Says Natasha And Yelena Try To ‘Fix Each Other’

Florence Pugh is coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe later this year. She stars in “Black Widow” as Yelena Belova, a sister figure to Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff. She revealed that the assassins are actually trying to overcome trauma in the Marvel Studios movie.

“Essentially it's about these two girls repairing themselves. These girls have been through a huge amount of hurt, and it's them getting together and trying to fix each other up,” Pugh told the Hollywood Reporter of the movie, which is directed by Cate Shortland.

It’s safe to say that they’ve been through a lot. Nat and Yelena are both graduates of the Red Room, where the KGB trained young girls to be spies and assassins. As seen in “Marvel’s Agent Carter,” they start training as children. However, both Nat and Yelena clearly went rogue.

Pugh believes that this is likely a more emotional story than many other superhero movies. “If you think about all those films, and you think about all those supposed superheroes, when do you see pain and when do you see what it takes to be that?” she continued.

The movie should give viewers a lot of insight to Natasha’s past. Black Widow’s backstory has been revealed in bits and pieces, but never before has it been explored like this. Previous movies have just hinted at her intense training and the Red Room’s disturbing methods (like sterilizing women against their will). It makes sense that Natasha is still dealing with the trauma of that upbringing.

“We all knew that we were doing something quite special and unique and something that hasn't really been done in the Marvel films before,” Pugh said.

While Nat and Yelena are working out some issues, don’t expect them to hug and go to therapy to work it out. The two have a pretty violent relationship, as seen in the trailer (at the top of this page).

“You get to learn how to fight, and that’s just like such a cool skill to learn on a job,” Pugh previously teased to Uproxx. “And I got to do it with Scarlett Johansson, which is one of those bizarre things that you suddenly wake up in a scene and go, oh my God, I’m trying to strangle Scarlet Johansson against the kitchen sink.”

“Black Widow” is due in theaters on May 1.