The beautiful 20-year old Scarlett Johansson runs for her life, as a clone on the run, in Michael Bay's The Island. More familiar to moviegoers for her more quite, character-driven roles in the likes of Girl with a Pearl Earring and the upcoming A Good Woman and Match Point, Johansson is clearly the 'it' girl of the moment. She talked to an eager media contingent in New York, and Garth Franklin was there.
Question: Just wondered what appealed to you with this particular role, was it the idea of playing an innocence of all of the contexts of the modern world and how difficult that was to hold on to when you were doing all this intrinsic action sequence?
Answer: I mean when I got the script it was just a really fantastic script. It was exciting, it was adventurous, it was fun. You know of course when you are reading a script and it says slides down a drain pipe or something you don't actually think that is ever going to happen until 7.30 in the morning on the day when Mr Michael Bay says just slide down this drain pipe and then we will do it again from another angle and again from another angle. So it was a lot of work, as far as playing a character that was kind of innocent it was delightful, it was really fun cause as an actor you know mentally you get into this state of everything being so new, children, dogs, people, cars feeling in love and physical intimacy and all of these things being so brand new so it manifests itself physically so you do, you get excited and then you feel excited and Ewan and I really fun time with that you know, it was very sweet.
Question: This film it contrasts pretty sharply with the films you have done as an adult, it is an action adventure film. How difficult was it to make the decision to do this film and make this entry into action adventure?
Answer: I wasn't difficult it was very easy. I think every film I have done is very different and I am constantly playing different characters, different kinds of directors, you know I for me I love genre films, if they are good they do the trick you kind of are removed from your life for a couple of hours and I had just never found one that I thought was good enough you know. You figure if you are going to do an action film, or a thriller or a science fiction film you know it had better be the right one cause it is not like you can do tonnes of them, you know and of course when I heard that Michael was attached to something it was very interesting for me because he does it so well. He is one of about two or three people that can do it really well do it right. So I figured if you are going to do it you may as well do it right. So it was easy for me, I was working on Match Point in London and you know they were shooting in a month and I said sign me up, it was very easy, no turmoil...
Question: There was undoubtedly a Star Wars moment in this movie and you know with the planes flying and the zinging and all that did you discuss that with Ewan and did he have a reaction to that ?
Answer: It is sooo exhausting. Yeah it really is, especially when you are imaging that you are trying to escape to save your own life and you can hear the grip chewing a sandwich next to you, really it is hard.
Question: You seem to be working non stop as you've got Match Point coming for Christmas, A Good Woman in September or October you are making the new Woody Allen movie now I guess. Are you a clone or a robot or a machine or do you really have some kind of a life. It seems like you are doing six movies a year...
Answer: If I had a clone I would never do the press junket. No that way I could sleep in get my eggs Benedict's that kind of thing. But I am definitely going to take a nice long much needed rest after this one I have promised myself that. The problems is once I start to relax for a while I get very anxious and then I have to do something, so I am either going to have to find some different kind of career path or just go to some far away Island and have silent torture sessions of myself about why I am not working. It is hard for me to take vacations, it is.
Question: Since you are filming in London is anything going to be different now after what has happened last week, are you worried or concerned about it?
Answer: No, of course not. London is a lovely place to be, it is as safe as any and you know the show must go on everybody is trucking along. We are shooting in Central London this week and will be for the rest of the show and I am staying there you know. I was here when September 11th happened and it was amazing the unity the people had and how wonderful the police and fire departments were and the same in London they were so fast acting. That alone is enough to make you feel ok. That threat is everywhere you go so it is important to not let it change your life.
Question: Have you seen Guys and Dolls?
Answer: I have, I did see Guys and Dolls.
Question: And your verdict?
Answer: It is fantastic.
Question: How is Ewan?
Answer: He is great. You would be so proud of him he is so great in it.
Question: Weren't you supposed to do that?
Answer: Me? No, no.
Question: Scarlett, you've risen fast in Hollywood. Are you surprised at just how fast you've achieved such success? And also, do you read about yourself in the tabloids?
Answer: Yeah, it's very surprising. I never had any expectation. I only hoped that and thought when I was younger that I'd like to be a working actor for... forever. But I don't think you can foresee something like this, something like this meaning kind of the hype or success or the fact that Michael could see me outside of a certain category and say, 'She's a young ingénue and has done some more alternative films.' The fact that he could see me in this was very surprising. It was lovely. It was very nice. As an actor you see yourself in all different kinds of roles. You imagine that you can play them. But it's not always that way looking at it from an industry point of view. I really don't patronize tabloid magazines, so if I ever read what's written about me it's either hearsay or maybe somebody has faxed me the article or something like that. But I don't think it really does any good. I never respond to any of those things, true, not true, whatever. I find it's better to avoid it because then you won't have to be correcting it in the next week's tabloids. And so you just sort of let it take its own course, unless it's horribly and unbelievably untrue and offensive.
Question: Scarlett, can you talk about the physical challenges on this film and were there any near-misses so far as the action scenes?
Answer: Yeah, I almost lost an eye. That was fun. I had a permanently blue new. That was pretty gross. The problem is that once we were doing this scene where I had to crawl on the sidewalk. There was so much action going on in the background. We were in the foreground and in the background it's like a car comes in, the SWAT team gets out, there's an explosion, and things are going on. What happened was I fell to my knees and in that instance I was like, 'Oh, that hurt so badly!' I had to keep crawling because the scene is so organized. It takes 20 minutes to put it all back to place. The first A.D. is screaming at everybody to get in their places and you just can't take that time. So you just kind of go through it in agony. And the eye, almost losing my eye, that was really a drag.
Question: Scarlett, were you at all jealous that Ewan got to play this other character and meet his sponsor? And would you like to play a dual character at some point?
Answer: Who knows?! If it wasn't too unbelievable. But he definitely had a great time with it. It was so fun to watch. Ewan was so funny in that scene because we all hated that character so much. He was so vile and so creepy. It was very funny. And I loved acting with him as that character as well because he was so, so leachy and gross. But (she'd play such a role) only if it were to come up in some kind of realistic (way). I could never think of a scenario. But it seemed like a good time.
Question: Scarlett, since you started so young, if you had a clone, what sort of career would have the clone do in lieu of your acting career? And how did you enjoy seeing Steve Buscemi again?
Answer: Oh, it was great. I love Steve. He's so, so, so funny and he's such a great actor. He cracks me up. It was really great to work with him again and I hope we get to work together again sometime in the future. And I'd just have her (THE CLONE) do simple household tasks, folding the laundry maybe prance around in clothing so I could see what I might look like. You know, do the grocery shopping, change the toilet paper, things people just don't like to do.
Question: So you wouldn't have her lead an alternate acting career so you could switch back and forth?
Answer: No, I'd rather use her for my own selfish... control.
Question: Scarlett, who's the one person you turn to for professional advice and for advice in general?
Answer: My mother. My mom has seen every single movie ever made, ever. She is a library of film, I mean unbelievable. She could be a film historian; I swear. She knows a lot about film and she has incredible taste. She also happens to be just absolutely adorable and lovely and caring and liberal. And... I trust her. I trust her. And she trusts me. So it really makes for a nice professional relationship and personal relationship. She wants me to do what makes me happy. That's all you can ask for is your parents' support, and she's lovely that way.
Question: With everything going on in your life do you feel like you'll know if you've ever reached your peak?
Answer: You mean will I know if I'm ever fully satisfied? I don t know. I hope to always be searching for ultimate satisfaction until the day that I die. Otherwise, gosh, how boring. I mean, it's good to feel satisfied, but I never want to stop looking or stop being curious about things. I think that you can get to a point in your life where you're comfortable with that, but I never want to be comfortable like that, not too comfortable. I'm saying that now of course as a 20 year old girl. Ask me in another 35 years and I'll probably tell you that all I want to be is comfortable. That's my perspective on it now anyway.
Question: What did you think about this subject matter in our current culture and showed up to get cloned?
Answer: I mean, I thought that it was practical regarding the story that we were trying to tell. When you see the people coming in looking to sponsor a clone of themselves that they all look like wealthy businessmen and athletes ,and of course you see Michael [Clarke Duncan]. Michael is a football player. It's people that we think in our rational minds that could afford this $2 million or $5 million policy. I thought that it was very much what it was supposed to be. It didn't seem radical.
Question: What do you think that the movie is trying to say?
Answer: I don't believe that movies should deliver messages. I never pick films based on whatever messages they're delivering. I think that when you leave the theater I think that you question, 'How far would I go to test fate?' But after all when I come out of a film that I've just paid $10 to see and spent 15 bucks on popcorn, when I come out of the theater at the end of it I just want to be entertained. I just want to leave and say, 'That was cool. I had a great time. That was a fun experience for me.' I don't really feel that films necessarily always have to deliver the big picture. That can be so preachy and boring particularly if you find it to be offensively preachy. So I just hope that people have a great time when they watch it. It's a trip.
Question: What do you like most about this film?
Answer: It's nice because it slowly starts to build, it gets psychologically creepier and creepier as it goes and then once you hit that point where everything is revealed and you see Michael and he's struggling for his life it's so horribly disturbing, it's so, so, so disturbing that from that moment on it just doesn't stop and that's the ride that you take.
Question: Are you going to do the Arthur Miller film?
Answer: I am.
Question: When do you start on that?
Answer: May I think.
Question: IS 'A Good Woman' coming out?
Answer: Yeah. I think that's coming out in September or in October.
Question: Is the Woody Allen you're filming now a comedy?
Answer: Yeah.
