Why Scarlett Johansson briefly “hated” Woody Allen
Scarlett Johansson and Woody Allen have established a close professional relationship over the past two decades, but the dynamic hasn’t always been so serene. Allen first met Johansson when casting for his 2005 movie Match Point. As revealed in his controversial 2020 memoir, Apropos of Nothing, Allen hired Johansson principally because she was “sexually radioactive”.
“She was only 19 when she did Match Point, but it was all there: an exciting actress, a natural movie star, real intelligence, quick and funny, and when you meet her, you have to fight your way through the pheromones,” Allen wrote. “Not only was she gifted and beautiful, but sexually she was radioactive.”
He later added that he “used her in a few movies” and hopes to work with her again “before I die or senility sets in and I’m drooling, but not over her”.
In the 2005 crime thriller Match Point, Johansson starred alongside Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Titanic star Kate Winslet was initially called upon for the role, but Allen was forced to replace her when the British star pulled out of the project.
As a socially awkward individual, Allen prefers to cast his actors based on previous film performances rather than in-person interviews and auditions.
“I’m not a great social person,” Allen once admitted to Total Film. “I don’t like to meet people, and it’s a very uncomfortable thing when an actor or actress comes in. They want to be liked and hired for the job; I’m meeting six of them, and only one of them can have the job. So I usually try and cast from films and videos, and then when I pick a person I like, I take one live look just to make sure they are what I think they are.”
“I had seen her in Lost In Translation and Ghost World and thought she was beautiful, sexy, a wonderful actress – completely interesting on the screen,” he added, discussing his ultimate casting choice. “I just felt like many other people that she was a new, legitimate, authentic movie star who had burst onto the screen, but not in a superficial way – she had real depth to her.”
Johansson is no stranger to an erotic scene, having been cast in a series of romantic dramas over the years, but while filming Match Point, she was less than impressed with one of the scenes.
“I was definitely miserable,” she once told People. “I mean, getting fully wet and drenched, especially when you’re wearing jeans, is like the most unpleasant thing, especially when you’re all nice and toasty, and they’re like, ‘We’re going to dump buckets of water on you.’ At first, I was like, ‘I could just get wet in the rain.’ They were like, ‘We have to make you drenched.’ I really hated my costumer that day. I really hated Woody that day, too.”
Adding fuel to the flames, Johansson also suffered a few injuries as a result of her physical scenes with Meyers. “I had, like, a swollen eye for a couple of days,” she told PopWatch. “[Jonathan] really bit my lip, actually — busted my lip open. And he sent me flowers the next day because he felt bad. It was so sweet.”
Despite a couple of frosty days during the Match Point shoot, Johansson and Allen have maintained an almost familial relationship. Allen saw early on that Johansson had what it takes to become a dominating Hollywood force and has shown his fatherly side on several occasions.
“She can do anything, but she has to make the right choices of films, and she’s got to not go the Page Six party route. I don’t want to read about her in the paper with this boyfriend or that boyfriend, or in rehab or taking pills,” Allen said, showing concern in 2008, via Page Six. “I don’t think she’s always made great choices. She has to take her acting seriously… the way someone like Meryl Streep did it.”
Watch the rainy scene from Match Point below.
