Scarlett Johansson: Scarlett Woman

Q: During any awards acceptance speech you may have to make in this or any other year, promise us you'll try and refrain from hyperventilating, OK?

A: Hyperventilating is so unattractive. I think I'd probably start to cry. I mean, it looks overwhelming up there on stage, and if you look around and your mom is crying and your agent is crying, that would be overwhelming. I promise you that in my "blessed" future, I won't thank my personal savior. I haven't even been saved yet, but I'll let you know when I find Him. Or Her.

Q: We're counting on you. Have these movies provoked any congratulatory phone messages you've listened to too many times?

A: Of all these fabulous phone messages I got when Lost in Translation came out, there was one in a male voice that said, "Hey, Scarlett, this is a message you don't have to return. It's Ben Stiller calling." We'd worked together when I was a baby in a movie I did with Sarah Jessica Parker called If Lucy Fell. He got my number from someone who does both our hair and left this wonderful message saying, "I was so moved by Lost in Translation and I'm still thinking about it. Congratulations." It was really nice and touching, so it was really cool to play that over and over again for myself.

Q: What kind of groove did you and John Travolta cut in the upcoming A Love Song for Bobby Long?

A: John is so damn good in this movie. And his face is so beautiful on film. Working with him was absolutely a pure, pure delight. We are so compatible. If I worked with him on every movie from now on, I'd be so happy.

Q: You play a fiercely headstrong girl in the movie. How headstrong are you off-screen?

A: Very. That's good in some ways, but in others, it's blinding. I tend to make these big statements like, "I hated that movie. It was the worst thing I've ever seen." If they say, "I didn't think that movie was that bad," I'll say, "It wasn't that bad? Did you see it?" I say these things as though that's the bottom line, which is really irritating for people, and afterwards I'll say, "I'm sorry. I totally made that statement as if it were God's word coming through. I have a problem."

Q: You're a twin, right?

A: Yes, but my brother Hunter and I don't look anything alike. If we're out together, people ask all the time if he's my boyfriend and I'm like, "Ewwww, no, he's my brother. Gross."

Q: How is shooting A Good Woman, which is based on Oscar Wilde and costars the formidable Helen Hunt and Tom Wilkinson, going?

A: Helen is really sweet, actually--very professional on the set, which is good because everybody else is goofy and ridiculous. I love Tom so much and told the producers I wouldn't do the movie without him. We're shooting in Rome and Ravello, and Helen was there with her boyfriend and we all hung out downstairs eating French fries at the hotel bar because we were all so dying for food that wasn't Italian. It's delicious food, but day after day you get so bloated. We have insane night schedules. At first when you're doing night shoots, it's like, "Wow, this is fun being up all hours. It's like a sleepover." Cut to two days later and people are just mean.

Q: "Scarlett Johansson in Rome." The whole idea makes me have this image of you walking around the city being ogled by men like in Ruth Orkin's great photograph "American Girl in Italy."

A: [Laughs] In New York, guys will go, "Hey, nice set of tits" and you're like, "Fuck you." You feel violated. In Italy, I was sitting having a big cappuccino, my seventh or eighth--I mean, you get stoned from this coffee--and while fiending for another cup, this guy comes up and says, "Can I give you a kiss?" I went, "No, keep the hell away from me!" and then he hands me a little candy Baci Perugina he'd gone into a store and bought for me. I thanked him, and he walked away so sweetly. In New York, you get catcalls, but in Rome a guy will say, "You're such a beautiful girl. Where are you from?" which is so much more romantic because then you say, "Oh, I'm from New York. Where are you from?" Also, the men seem so confident and full of life, maybe because European mothers tell their sons they're beautiful all the time so you get these hairy, short, bizarre-looking men who believe they're good-looking. Of course, they're also probably still living at home at 35 and sending actresses fan mail.

Q: Did you raid the shops while shooting in Italy?

A: There was another movie shooting in Rome, The Life Aquatic, that my friend's boyfriend [Wes Anderson] is directing. So when my friend came to visit him, it was so nice because it was a little piece of home. We were these two blonde American girls on the run, in and out of Prada and Gucci. It was great because I'd been to Rome for a week before this and had done all of the touristy stuff, so I didn't feel any pressure to see the Coliseum. Instead, I could go to the Via Condotti and shop. It was so fabulous. I left those stores with like 800 shopping bags. It was like my retail therapy. Also, [before I left] I bought my car, which I love. I was that idiot who goes into the BMW place and says, "I don't care, I have to drive off this lot with the car I want." I'd gone online and saw the different colors available, and there on the lot was the exact Z4 that I wanted. I didn't want to lease it. I just wanted my incredible car because it's not like getting a Honda Civic where you want to trade it in for something else later. This is a sports car, kind of a classic, beautiful car.

Q: So, are you now dating some Italian who looks like Raoul Bova?

A: There's this guy I really like in New York. I'm kind of pursuing him. It's very new. And fun. It's nice to have a crush on someone. It feels like you're alive, you know? It's been good on this film I'm doing in Italy, too. Because I'm so far away from everything, I feel like I have something else that keeps bringing me back to New York and someone to think about, too. So we'll see. He has a kind face and I like kind faces, approachable--with nice, kind eyes.

Q: Working like crazy appears to agree with you. But, aside from shopping sprees in Italy, what other sorts of fun are you having spending some of your hard-earned wages?

A: I just bought an apartment here in L.A. Everybody was like, "You're going to buy a house? Cool." But, I'm like, "House? Are you kidding? I'm going to be alone in the kitchen at night shivering in the corner." I'd like a house when I'm married with children. I don't want a big house. I don't like to be alone in a big space. It's about 1,100 square feet--basically two rooms, two bathrooms, a big kitchen--and it's glorious. My father is an architect and a contractor and he's so happy because he could never help me out before until now. It's my first apartment, and it's in quite a large building, and everybody in it is crazy, all these kooky, old Hollywood producers and stuff. I want to be an active tenant association member. I'm also going to throw a cocktail party for the neighbors on my floor once my apartment is ready.

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