Scarlett Johansson says Joaquin Phoenix was so embarrassed by a phone sex scene between the two on Her that he ran off the set.
By Mark McKee | Released
In 2013, Scarlett Johansson’s career began to explode into the stratosphere thanks to her role as Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Joaquin Phoenix had already established himself as one of the most talented actors in the business by carrying films by being nominated for three Best Actor Oscars Walk the line, The masterand joker (winning the statue for joker) and a nod for Best Supporting Actor gladiator. The pair came together in the Oscar-winning 2013 film. she; and according to a Variety report, one aspect of Johansson’s performance made Phoenix so uncomfortable that he ran away from her.
According to the report, Scarlett Johansson, playing the Siri-like artificial intelligence, had a scene in which she had to have phone sex with lead actor Phoenix. The acting was apparently so good that the actor had to run away from Johnasson and take breaks.
She revealed this in an interview on Dax Shephard’s armchair expert podcast they barely made it through a take before Phoenix ran out of the studio. She went on to talk about the awkwardness of the scene for her, saying that not only do you never ever want to hear your own voice, you definitely don’t want to hear what it sounds like during sex.
she follows a lonely writer, Theodore (Phoenix), who develops an unconventional relationship with his operating system named Samantha (Johansson), which is designed to serve his every need. The film features a who’s who of today’s most prominent actors, including a slew of superheroes including Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Joaquin Phoenix (Joker), Amy Adams (Lois Lane), Chris Pratt (Starlord) and Matt Letscher (reverse flash).
The film also stars Olivia Wilde (don’t worry darling and Tron: Legacy), Kristen Wiig (Saturday night live and ghostbusters) and Bill Hader (Informatics: Chapter 2 and Very bad).
In the interview on the podcast, Scarlett Johansson spoke further about the early years of her career and how she’d been typecast into over-sexualized roles, saying she was pigeonholed and not getting offers for the kind of work she wanted to do. She felt people thought she was 40 as it stopped being something to aspire to and became something she had to fight against. The actress felt that her career was over and that the roles she played were what her career would be.
Samantha Morton was originally set to play Samantha shebut she was replaced by Scarlett Johansson in post-production, which required reshoots, including the phone sex scene that forced Phoenix to run from the studio.
While the beginning of her role as Natasha Romanoff began as an over-sexualized version of the character (used as a love/lust interest for nearly all of the original Avengers) and she’s had a handful of similar roles, she’s clearly moved beyond that typecasting. With her role in sheshe was able to find the balance between depth and sexualization.
