The surreal intensity of Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson’s ‘Her’ sex scene
Spike Jonze’s science-fiction romantic drama Her is one of the best movies of 2013. The project stars Joaquin Phoenix as letter writer Theodore Twombly, a lonely man who begins a romantic relationship with an artificially intelligent virtual assistant called Samantha, played by Scarlett Johansson.
Johansson was not actually the first actor to be attached to the role of Samantha, though; it had initially been assumed by Samantha Morton. However, Jonze felt that Morton’s performance was not quite what he had wanted to come through in the final product, so he sought out Johansson to take over.
The director once told Vulture, “Samantha was with us on set and was amazing. It was only in post-production, when we started editing that we realised that what the character/movie needed was different from what Samantha and I had created together. So we recast, and since then, Scarlett has taken over that role.”
Johansson had been interested in the project and the chance to provide voice work for a live-action film. While talking to Interview, she said, “I like doing voice work, and I’ve also become increasingly interested in pushing different parts of performance, whether it’s a physical thing or a kind of vocal nuance, so this seemed like it would be an interesting thing to at least talk about.”
However, when Johansson was filming the virtual sex scene with Phoenix, a problem arose that saw her co-star find it difficult to come around to the idea of having a sexual interaction with such intensity as Johansson was providing.
Johansson told Armchair Expert, “I remember we came in that day. I’ve become that actor that’s like, ‘Let’s get dirty.’ I have to because otherwise, I’ll be petrified. Joaquin comes in, we try to get through one take, and he was, like, losing it. He was like, ‘I can’t do it.'”
“I was fine. Joaquin was not – he was so upset about it,” she continued. “He left the studio, and now I’m in this box by myself, and I’m like, ‘I can’t do it alone. I need him to come back.’ He needed a break; he took a break, and he came back in.”
Evidently, the sex scene was too much to bear for Phoenix, which raised the question of whether he’d managed it with Samantha Morton in the first place. Perhaps Johansson bought a new intensity to the role, and even though she didn’t actually appear on screen, she lent the film her undoubted excellent, even if it scared the shit out of Phoenix.
Check out the sex scene in question from Her to get a flavour of Phoenix’s fear and Johansson’s intensity.
