Thunderbolts* Director Says Florence Pugh Jumped Off Skyscraper for Stunt After Being Denied by Safety Experts 3 Times (Exclusive)

• Thunderbolts* director Jake Schreier tells PEOPLE that Florence Pugh “just would not let it die” after Disney’s health and safety divisions initially declined the movie’s request for Pugh to jump off a skyscraper for a stunt
• “It’s not only an action stunt, but it’s also being in character and just knowing that she’s going to pull that off, both on an acting level and also on a daredevil level, is really amazing to watch,” Schreier says
• Pugh completed the stunt on top of Malaysia’s Merdeka 118, the world’s second-tallest building, for a moment that opens Marvel Studios’ latest movie

Florence Pugh’s Thunderbolts* director is just as impressed with her daring stunt for Marvel Studios’ latest movie as audiences are.

At a special screening of Thunderbolts* hosted by The Cinema Society and Synchrony in New York City on Wednesday, April 30, the movie’s director Jake Schreier tells PEOPLE that Marvel and Disney’s health and safety divisions denied Pugh’s request to jump off Malaysia’s Merdeka 118, the second-tallest building in the world, for an electrifying stunt that kicks off the new movie.

“I think, I mean, almost any moment with Florence, she just drops into that character so easily, but especially on the top of the second-tallest building in the world,” Schreier, 43, says of Pugh’s big scene. “And it’s a real character moment. It’s not only an action stunt, but it’s also being in character and just knowing that she’s going to pull that off, both on an acting level and also on a daredevil level, is really amazing to watch.”

“She really did it and Disney Health and Safety said no maybe three times and she just would not let it die,” Schreier adds.

Pugh, 29, completed the daredevil-type stunt in her return to her Marvel Cinematic Universe role as Yelena Belova, who last appeared in 2021’s Black Widow movie and the Disney+ series Hawkeye.

“With this one, I was like, ” ‘This is just such an insane opportunity,’ ” Pugh said on Late Night with Seth Meyers on April 30, when asked why she insisted on doing the jump herself. “I love daredevil stuff. I take after my gran. My gran is a big daredevil, and so is my dad, and I was just like, ‘This is insane. Never again in my life will I ever, ever, be even close to experiencing that. And Marvel are hopefully gonna back me in doing that.’ “

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Pugh added on the late-night talk show that the stunt was removed from Thunderbolts*’ script at one point, “because they obviously realized they couldn’t ensure their number one actress to jump off a building.”

“I was like, ‘This is ridiculous. I can’t believe they’re not letting me do this. They let Tom Cruise do it,’ ” she said. “And so then I just got really sassy in my emails, and I kept on being really sassy and they said, ‘Alright, we figured it out. You’re going to jump off the second-tallest building in the world.’ And then I was like, ‘Oh, crap.’ I didn’t actually – I knew that I wanted to do it, but I didn’t actually process doing it, and then I instantly got sweaty palms.” 

Thunderbolts*, which also stars David Harbour, Sebastian Stan, Lewis Pullman Olga Kurylenko, Hannah John-Kamen and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, is in theaters May 2.