Florence Pugh Continues to Push the Limits With Her Thunderbolts* Press Tour Looks

If you’ve been following the Thunderbolts* press tour, even tangentially, you’ve likely already heard the story of Florence Pugh’s big leap. The actress kicks off Marvel’s newest outing by jumping off Malaysia’s Merdeka 118 tower, the second-tallest building in the world—a stunt she apparently had to push Disney to let her perform. But Tom Cruise-adjacent antics aren’t the only risks Pugh is taking these days. Her fashion while promoting Thunderbolts* has proven just as perilous as that 2,227-foot drop. She has gone sheer, sheerer, and sheerest throughout the film’s numerous premieres, and while her look on Wednesday night (mostly) covered her up, it was not without a touch of danger.

Pugh, along with her fellow Thunderbolts* cast members, attended a special screening for the upcoming film hosted by The Cinema Society in New York City. The actress arrived to the theater in a backless, skintight leather Loewe dress with a high collar and higher slit. But Pugh did not look the least bit uncomfortable. In fact, the actress said she gravitates toward red carpet ensembles that push her outside of her comfort zone.

“I don’t really like being too comfortable for too long,” she told W on the carpet. “I like things being a little bit scary. I like knowing that I don’t know if I can do it.”

Those words ring true when it comes to both Pugh’s style and her acting choices. It only helps that Pugh’s Thunderbolts* character is Yelena Belova, a trained Russian assassin—the perfect muse for this press tour’s looks. “We definitely have integrated who she is and what she does,” Pugh said of Yelena’s effect on her fashion choices lately. The influence is obvious in the outsized use of leather and the embrace of edgier pieces, like the seatbelt-covered The Attico mini dress Pugh wore while promoting the film in Los Angeles earlier this week.

Yelena was definitely present in Pugh’s Loewe number on Wednesday night. And despite the actress trying to remain stoic for the cameras, all that melted away when Internet sensation Christian Joseph AKA The Rizzler showed up. The nine-year-old was dressed as David Harbour’s character in the film, The Red Guardian; Harbour wasn’t present at the event, so The Rizzler acted as an adorable alternative. In fact, the rest of the cast posing for pictures immediately began fawning over the boy in his red jumpsuit.

The Rizzler was not in attendance at the after party, held at the new San Vincente West Village, previously the Jane Hotel. (To be fair, it was likely past his bedtime.) Pugh was there, joined by her castmates including Lewis Pullman, Geraldine Viswanathan, Hannah John-Kamen, and the film’s director, Jake Schreier. Attendees munched on teeny burgers and cups of french fries while debriefing the film and the meaning of that asterisk in the title. But don’t ask any of the actors the reasoning behind the punctuation before you see the movie—they won’t tell you. Not even Pugh is willing to risk leaking that info.