The following post contains SPOILERS for Black Widow.

During the filming of Black Widow, everyone on set went to great lengths to conceal the identity of Taskmasker. The character is traditionally portrayed as a man in the comics, but Black Widow subverted expectations by featuring actress Olga Kurylenko as the masked assassin. In order the keep her big mid-movie reveal a secret, an elaborate setup was required.

In a recent interview with Esquire, Kurylenko revealed the intense process needed to keep her identity from the public. “Everybody had to sign the NDA and everybody knew, of course, that it will be a big secret,” she explained. “We were shooting outside and paparazzi are all over the place. I mean, I have to dress and walk from my tent to set. They made this umbrella that had fabric hanging from it. I was underneath and I had to look through a little hole to see where I'm going.”

The true villain of Black Widow is Red Room leader General Dreykov (Ray Winstone), but his skilled fighter Taskmaster poses a threat to Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) for much of the film. Because of the character’s fully covered costume, Marvel had the opportunity to surprise viewers with a twist when Kurylenko's helmet comes off. Luckily, the creative team was able to pull it off. They concealed Kurylenko's identity so well, her own mother didn't even know she was in the movie.”

“Do you know what? Even my mother doesn’t know. She still doesn’t know,” Kurylenko shared. “It was so funny because the trailer came out and she was like, ‘Oh my God, OK, I saw this trailer. Do you know the movie that's coming out? That looks so cool. I want to see it. Can we go see it?’ I said, ‘Sure, I'll go with you.’ Well, it came out yesterday. I still haven’t told her. I think I can tell her today. Poor mom. I mean, she has no idea.”

Black Widow is in theaters now, or you can watch it on Disney+ with their Premier Access feature.

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