“I was laughing out loud”: Scarlett Johansson’s favourite scene from ‘Lost In Translation’
It’s easy to pinpoint Lost in Translation as the moment Scarlett Johansson revealed to the world she was destined for superstardom, but it’s also equally easy to forget she was already a hugely experienced actor by the time Sofia Coppola’s classic dramedy even released.
Making her feature film debut at the age of only nine years old, Johansson got an early taste of working with renowned auteurs and star-studded ensembles when she played Laura Nelson in Rob Reiner’s 1994 flop North. The movie itself was beyond awful, but that’s besides the point, because she was off and running.
She played Sean Connery’s daughter in action thriller Just Cause, co-starred alongside director Robert Redford in The Horse Whisperer, anchored cult favourite Ghost World with Thora Birch, and ran away from gigantic CGI spiders in creature feature Eight Legged Freaks before Coppola had even cast her opposite Bill Murray in her Tokyo-set romance.
Johansson was still only a teenager when Lost in Translation hit cinemas, but the 18-year-old ended up as a Golden Globe nominee after earning a nomination for ‘Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical’, while the film went on to earn almost $120million at the box office, land ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Director’ nods at the Academy Awards, and win Coppola the prize for ‘Best Original Screenplay’.
After that, Johansson became one of the most in-demand young stars in all of Hollywood, and she’s maintained that level of fame, visibility, and consistency for the last 20 years and counting. Lost in Translation is very much a two-hander, with college graduate Charlotte and fading star Bob Harris becoming increasingly intertwined after their fated first meeting.
The final scene and unspoken final words between the two has become one of the 21st century’s most iconic finales, but that’s not Johansson’s favourite moment from the film. In fact, none of the intense, emotional, and touching exchanges between the two are, although it does make sense that for someone who grew up as a huge fan of the person she’d share the screen with in her breakthrough role, it’s one of Murray’s most memorable comedic beats that took top spot.
Admitting to the BBC that she was “raised on Bill Murray movies,” the future Marvel Cinematic Universe stalwart called Groundhog Day “one of my favouritest movies ever.” Grammatical inaccuracies aside, Murray being Murray and making the most out of a setup as seemingly innocuous as getting some exercise had Johansson ready to split at the sides.
“My favourite scene with him in Lost In Translation is when he’s on the treadmill,” she said. “I saw it for the first time right before we did ADR and I was laughing out loud. I think that’s so funny.” She’s not wrong, and what makes it even better is the aftermath of watching Bob limp through the hotel lobby having been forced to deal with the consequences of his actions.
