Scarlett
Johansson who plays Russian superspy Black Widow in the upcoming Iron Man
2 talks to us about . . .
The first Iron Man movie
“When Iron Man came out my mom saw the film
and loved it. I thought ‘Wow, my mom doesn’t know anything about comics
and if the film spans a wide age demographic then it must be really good.’
I went to see the film and was blown away by the story and how charming it
was. The action was great, but it also was romantic, funny, clever and
witty. It was just a great film. So when I heard that there was a possible
part in the second installment, I was all over it and determined to be in
the film.”
Seeing the Black Widow costume for the first time
“I knew it was going to be some kind of sexy unitard, because I had
researched the character in the comics. I’ve never worn anything like it
before, so I had a freak-out moment that lasted about half a day, but then
I said ‘Okay, time to suck it up’ and just went full force into getting in
shape to wear the costume and perform the physical action so it looked
just right.”
Her training program
“Black Widow is an expert in hand-to-hand combat, she's a mixed martial
artist, has a dance and gymnastics background, so she combines all of
these aspects into one kick-ass fighting machine so I dedicated myself to
putting in the hours, repetitions, and training with the stunt team until
I felt comfortable that I could sell each particular move.”
Doing as many of the physical stunts as possible
“I’m very sensitive about when you see an action sequence and the shot is
on the back of somebody’s head, and then all of the sudden it cuts and the
actor gives that one dramatic pose at the end and it’s obvious that it was
not them in the shot before. It’s the lamest thing, because you want to
see the actor risking their own life, and that is part of what sells it to
an audience. So that’s why I worked for months to prepare and I really
didn’t want to be perceived as a little wuss who couldn’t do it.”
Her first action scene
“When I first saw it completed and choreographed by the stunt team, I just
thought to myself, ‘Oh my god, I don’t know how I’m going to do this, but
then I took a deep breath and, with all the training and repetitions we
put in during rehearsals, it just started to flow and it became a reality
as I was doing it. It was a lot of fun for me to work with all the people
[stunt supervisor] Tommy Harper assembled because they are some of the
greatest stunt guys out there and were so incredibly supportive. It was
very frustrating at times, which I am sure you will see on the DVD, but I
think we really nailed it and when Tommy Harper says you got it, then I
know we got it and it will be great fun to watch.”
More about her character:
“There is this whole other world that Marvel is chomping at the bit to
explore in the upcoming
Avengers, so we
wanted to set that up and make sure that we really dialed in those
characters. With the character of Natalie, a.k.a. Black Widow, we needed
someone who could get entry into Tony’s life and be a mole on the inside.
We couldn’t have Nick Fury just show up again in the living room and say,
'Hey, I’m here in the story again.' We needed to have something a little
more planned out and someone who could feed Tony information or give him
things that could help him in his quest to fix himself. Black Widow is a
character that any red-blooded male is going to love and Scarlett was the
perfect person to fill those shoes.”
– Iron Man 2 screenwriter Justin Theroux
