《独家新闻》的斯嘉丽·约翰逊

Scoop's Scarlett Johansson

By Sara Brady

Scoop, the first of three 2006 movies Scarlett Johansson will appear in, is her second with director Woody Allen. As she tells it, while playing a femme fatale in last year's Match Point, she remarked that she'd enjoy acting with the prolific actor-writer-director, so he wrote Scoop, a fluffy confection of a murder mystery-comedy with her in mind. Johansson plays the bumbling college reporter Sondra Pransky, who gets a tip from a veteran journalist (Ian McShane) to begin investigating a possibly murderous aristocrat (Hugh Jackman) and then promptly falls in love with him. As the classic Allen heroine—flighty, neurotic, and prone to ending up in hilariously troublesome situations—Johansson shows off her comic timing and banters skillfully with Allen himself.

Premiere: Your character tends to get into trouble. Was it fun to play somebody who's sort of nerdy and not quite as cool as she would like to be?

Scarlett Johansson: It was a great character to play. I don't think she wants to be cool; she just wants to be some idea of fabulous, but she's kind of a loser. Woody said she's kind of like Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday, sort of a lovable idiot. It was a lot of fun to play all of her weird mannerisms.

Obviously, he's a walking encyclopedia of film history, but are you familiar with those old movies?

I know, it's amazing. He's seen every movie ever made. I've seen a lot more old films than new ones, but I've always watched 'em since I was a kid. And my mom [knows] incredible film history, so I inherited some of that.

Does Allen direct differently when he's in the scene with you versus when he's not acting?

Woody doesn't use any monitors, so when we were shooting Match Point, there would be a lot more circumstances where we might have to go back and re-shoot something if he was unhappy or it didn't cut together, but when he's working with you, it's like he can tell immediately. We could be in the middle of shooting something, and he's like “Cut! That's not gonna work.” It was very convenient I thought.

How do you feel, as a young actress, when you hear Allen comparing you to Diane Keaton?

I think it's amazing. It's quite unbelievable. And you know, I've been paying him on the side, but his demands are getting kind of insane, so I'm dried up. But the compliments keep coming, which is nice.

Any idea if you'll do a third movie with Allen, making this a trilogy?

A trilogy where he tries to kill me off? I don't know what that's all about. And if I have to be soaked one more time … he's never soaking wet and fully clothed. Hopefully, we'll get to work together in the future, otherwise I'll have to take a job craft service or as his personal assistant or something like that.

At the beginning of Scoop, your character sleeps with the subject of her interview. Did you discuss that highly sexualized, bimbo quality with Allen at all?

No, it's funny, you know? Woody is of an era when that kind of sexual promiscuity was just accepted. You look at films like Barbarella and you're like, “what's going on? This girl is all over the place.” But I think there's something quite funny about [her behavior], and as promiscuous and ditzy as she is, there's a strength in her ability to use her sexual wiles to get the scoop. I think it's humorous.

Usually in Woody Allen movies, there's either a character he plays or a stand-in for him. In Scoop, you play the Allen character to an extent, even though he's in the film. What's it like to play Allen in front of him?

I've never “done” Woody before; that's how Woody and I talk to each other. We have some similarity in our backgrounds, so that's how we talk. I could never attempt to imitate him and I would never want to. He's a seventy-year-old man, for Christ's sake.

How did you enjoy filming again in London?

I absolutely loved London. They were so welcoming to us, and we had such a wonderful crew. For me it's like a holiday, especially with the hours that Woody keeps: He needs to make his dinner reservation, so we wrap early. In the summer, there's no better place to be.