“An unprecedented experience”: the director Scarlett Johansson called “every actor’s dream”
No stranger to a blockbuster or two, whenever Scarlett Johansson hasn’t been tasked with saving the world in an effects-heavy adventure, there’s a distinct chance she’ll be found working on a much smaller project with a distinctive auteur.
Her recurring role as the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Natasha Romanoff made her one of the highest-paid stars in Hollywood, and she’s broadened those box office horizons by headlining Luc Besson’s madcap actioner Lucy, voicing Kaa in Jon Favreau’s The Jungle Book, and heading back into the booth for the animated Sing and its sequel.
As a result, her filmography has hauled in an eye-watering $15.4 billion globally, but the opportunity to work with a supremely talented filmmaker on a movie made at a fraction of the cost is one she’s clearly been unable to resist during her two-decade stint under the bright lights of Tinseltown.
Whether it was her star-making turn in Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation, her Academy Award-nominated performances in Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit and Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story, Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige, the Coen brothers’ Hail, Caesar!, or the Wes Anderson duo Isle of Dogs and Asteroid City, Johansson has made it her mission to partner up with the best.
However, special praise was reserved for one collaborator in particular, which is only fair when Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin stands out as one of her finest turns. Not only that, but the writer and director’s unscripted approach to many scenes created the ideal otherworldly vibe for a scintillating sci-fi horror that’s as dread-inducing as it is existential.
In an interview with Time Out, Johansson referred to the director as “something else, definitely,” before doubling down on her adulation. “Jonathan is – and there’s no bullshitting here – every actor’s dream,” she said. “It was an unprecedented experience for me, working with somebody so insightful and curious.”
Not texting or scrolling during production is surely a pre-requisite, but the actor was nonetheless compelled to point out how “I don’t think I ever saw him on his phone once.” Good for him, not that Johansson would go so far as to describe him as being “cool as a cucumber.”
Glazer might only have four features under his belt, but when that quartet is comprised of Sexy Beast, Birth, Under the Skin, and The Zone of Interest, it goes without saying that he’s four-for-four. Under the Skin was his most outlandish by far in terms of its premise and atmosphere, and the only one that could be branded a genre flick in the broadest of terms, but it was undeniably the work of a single-minded creative who knew exactly what they wanted to capture. Johansson was fully on board, and the results spoke for themselves.
