Marvel’s Black Widow, which takes place in between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War, finds Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanov alone and on the run, when she’s unexpectedly dragged back into her past and is forced to confront the darker parts of her ledger. The movie also introduces us to Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova, Natasha’s long lost sister and fellow Red Room operative.
In this Goggler exclusive, we spoke to both Scarlett Johansson and Florence Pugh about their on-screen “womance” and asked them how they went about developing that chemistry.
Umapagan Ampikaipakan: The Marvel movies are full of bromances. And this is the first with a real, honest-to-God, “womance.” How did you guys develop that chemistry, growing it from a sisterly bond, to that powerful camaraderie we see at the end of the movie?
Florence Pugh: There was always that idea of a younger sister coming back from the past and and prodding and poking the entire time. I think when Scarlett and I met each other, that kind of instant connection was so wonderfully there from our first rehearsal. I remember our first rehearsal. We had to do these trust exercises and I was instantly taking the piss out of her and she was really taking the piss out of me. And it was just wonderful and I thought, “oh, great is going to be so easy.”
And I think just from having that kind of budding friendship and relationship, there was so many areas where we could put that into the film and it made complete sense. I think, for example, I was taking the piss out of your pose once, and I remember you laughing and being like, “I can’t believe you’re on set taking the piss out of my pose.” And we put it in. There were so many natural things like that. All of those wonderful moments where Scarlett looks at me in the film like she can’t believe I just said that. It’s real because we actually had that friendship.
I think it was very natural to have that element of me prodding and us laughing at each other because that certainly helped with the sisterly bond. So much so that I can’t wait to watch us giggling again on screen. It’s so easy. And I think it feels like home.
UA: Yelena is far more antagonistic in the comics than she is in this movie. Was there ever a plan to make her the villain of the piece?
Scarlett Johansson: You know, it’s interesting because before the iteration of the character that Florence embodies, Yelena for a long time was really an adversary. There was this really this very old fashioned idea of trying to kind of dethrone Natasha. It wasn’t a sisterly relationship. It was more of an adversary. And she’s constantly trying to outdo her, or undermine her, or whatever. And it was so stale and so disagreeable to me from the very beginning.
This is not how women interact with one another, you know? I mean, it would be so much more interesting if they had a real relationship with one another, like two women would. And it could be deep, and meaningful, and fraught with all kinds of emotional complications, and love. It could be a relationship where two women try to lift each other up. Like, wow, isn’t that revolutionary?
And of course my desire to work with Cate on this came out of the fact that she has an incredible career, and has made amazing films, with such incredible and complicated female protagonists. That was also a benchmark she wanted to reach, in creating the kind of relationship that these two women have. She understood that. And we had the same priority there.
That was how we developed the Yelena character before Florence was cast. So it was just perfect when Florence came on and we had such a great chemistry between us. It infused it and made it so much more deep, and real, and colourful, and fun. It was fantastic.
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