Hawkeye Star Florence Pugh Praises Jeremy Renner’s Performance in Emotional Scene

The penultimate episode of Hawkeye, “Ronin,” was released on Disney+ this week and had everything fun scenes to emotional ones. One such sad scene featured Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) visiting a memorial plaque dedicated to the original six Avengers who fought in the Battle of New York. The touching moment sees Clint speaking to Natasha Romanoff, who died in Avengers: Endgame, and telling her he’s sorry for what he has to do. The episode also features Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) continuing her quest to kill Barton, who she blames for killing Natasha. Yelena might have some major beef with Clint, but Pugh is clearly a fan of Renner’s. In fact, she took to Instagram yesterday to praise his performance in the scene. 

“‘You were the bravest of us all, weren’t you? Loyal, stubborn, you always had to win didn’t you?’ @jeremyrenner.. you had me in bits. Beautiful. Beautiful. So much love and pain for Natasha. Still so grateful to be included, still HUGELY amazed and appreciative for all the love. Thank you,” Pugh wrote. Hailee Steinfeld, who plays Kate Bishop on the series, replied to the post with a heart emoji. You can check it out below:

Steinfeld recently spoke with TVLine, and referenced the witty repartee between Kate and Yelena, saying she was “pretty sure it all made it in there, which was already a lot.” The latest episode featured the two women sharing a meal of boxed mac-and-cheese with hot sauce.

“It really so seamless getting through it with Florence [Pugh]. The banter is incredible,” Steinfeld added. “We’ve got a girls’ night over mac and cheese and hot sauce so how could that not be so much fun? But [also] realizing that this scene does, in fact, carry a lot of weight. These two characters who find this quick connection and almost friendship in each other but know that that cannot and will not get in the way of what they’re both trying to achieve. Kate is at a loss with what Yelena is after and is trying to understand what she’s there to do and why she’s so sure about what kind of person Clint is.”

In another interview with Cosmopolitan, Steinfeld talked about getting along with Pugh and noted that they had similar energy. 

“Oh, one hundred percent. I honestly felt that right away. And I hope to god she’d say the same thing. Jeez. Now that I say it, I’m like, ‘I knew right from the start!’ And what if she was like, ‘This girl?’ No, I think we just had similar energy,” Steinfeld said. “We had a moment together where we were shooting and something went wrong. There was no recovering from it. I started laughing so hard that somebody thought I was crying-I don’t know what that says about my laugh-and I just remember a flood of people rushing in and being like, ‘Is everyone okay?’ And I’m literally facedown on the ground, just hysterically laughing. Mind you, we were in a scene that was in no way, shape, or form meant to be at all funny. We really did have a wonderful time together.”

The finale of Hawkeye will drop on Disney+ on December 22nd.