Scarlett Johansson is opening about her on-screen science with Chris Evans, her Marvel Cinematic Universe co-star.
Scarlett Johansson And Chris Evans are two of the greatest stars in the MCU. Their hero characters — Natasha Romanoff otherwise known as Black Widow and Steve Rogers otherwise known as Captain America — have been long-term top picks among crowds. Furthermore, for a considerable length of time, fans have been frantic for Evans and Johansson’s characters to build up a sentimental relationship.
Causing them a deep sense of disillusionment, Natasha and Steve didn’t turn out to be each other’s affection advantages in any of the Avengers movies. Be that as it may, fans saw flashes between the two characters and couldn’t get enough.
Johansson — who next stars in Black Widow, an independent element film about her Marvel hero following the occasions of Captain America: Winter Soldier —says the science between Captain America and Black Widow showed up so unmistakable on screen since she and Evans have known each other for such a long time.
Scarlett Johansson’s on-screen chemistry with Chris Evans comes from ‘10 years of knowing somebody’
In a video accompanying her spread meeting for Entertainment Weekly, Johansson separated some of Black Widow’s best scenes. At the point when it came to vehicle scene in 2014’s Captain America: Winter Soldier, Johansson said the science originated from knowing her co-star for over 10 years.
What occurred in the scene? After a light second when Steve asked Natasha to expel her feet from the vehicle’s dashboard, Johansson’s character asked her individual superhuman, “Who do you need me to be?” to which Evans’ character answered, “What about a companion?” Natasha then returned with, “You may be in an inappropriate business, Rogers.”
The straightforward trade probably won’t appear a lot. Be that as it may, watching Evans and Johansson play it out, the science between their characters is clear. Johansson said her off-screen companionship with Evans proved to be useful in this specific scene.
“It’s actually a consequence of 10 years of knowing someone and having the option to have a sort of closeness with them that I think you get from simply investing a ton of energy with someone and knowing their delicate underbelly,” she said in the video before including, “We had a great deal of fun doing it.”
Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson first worked together in 2004
As youthful entertainers in Hollywood manner before they became easily recognized names for their jobs in the MCU, Evans and Johansson met on the arrangement of 2004’s The Perfect Score. They played secondary school seniors who chose to take the responses to the SAT, so they could get ideal scores on the test, as per IMDb. Their co-stars included Parenthood’s Erika Christensen and One Tree Hill’s Bryan Greenberg.
They reunited again in 2007
After three years, Johansson and Evans cooperated again in The Nanny Diaries where Johansson played a babysitter on New York City’s Upper East Side inverse Evans as her adoration intrigue.
Presently that their days in the Avengers franchise are likely behind them as the MCU pushes ahead with new stages, perhaps Johansson and Evans will be brought together in a future task.
A-listers Scarlett Johansson and Chris Evans have one of those Hollywood friendships we covet.
They’ve known each other for over 10 years, meeting when they made the teen heist comedy The Perfect Score in 2004. Since then, they have worked together on six films, including the four biggies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe,
The fact Johansson and Evans were besties before they even entered the MCU makes their relationship even more special. Playing two of the original Avengers, Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow and Steve Rogers aka Captain America, the two infused their real-life friendship into their superhero characters, giving a richer context to their interactions onscreen.
Naturally, because of the great chemistry between them – and the fact they are both just too darn good looking as a pair – many rumors have swirled that Johansson and Evans dated. And if not, many fans thought they should be, and it was just a matter of time before things would finally turn romantic.
However, the close friends have defied the odds and have always kept their relationship strictly platonic. They truly think of themselves as brother and sister, and we’ve simply enjoyed watching them banter and play together throughout their entire MCU journey. One wonders what they might do next as a pair once the Avengers ends.
Here are 15 Secrets Behind Chris Evans And Scarlett Johansson’s Friendship.
15- WHAT HAPPENED WHEN THEY MET
When Scarlett Johansson and Chris Evans initially met on the arrangement of their 2004 movie The Perfect Score, Johansson was at that point a prepared ace. The on-screen character got her beginning as a youngster, featuring in motion pictures like The Horse Whisperer and If Lucy Fell. Indeed, by 2004, the 20-year-old Johansson had just made her first genuine sprinkle in Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation and was getting one of the outside the box film world’s “it” young ladies.
Evans, then again, was simply beginning as an entertainer. He had done one brief TV arrangement and the high schooler satire spoof Not Another Teen Movie, so The Perfect Score was another step in his blossoming movie profession.
The heist satire centers around six secondary school seniors who all need to pro the SATs for different reasons yet can’t exactly measure up. They choose to break into the Princeton Testing Center and take the appropriate responses so they would all be able to get flawless scores. It likewise stars Erika Christensen, Bryan Greenburg, Darius Miles, and Leonardo Nam.
Johansson portrayed her first experience with Evans to Variety. “Our storylines didn’t run into each other to an extreme. We had one scene where we needed to sing together. I was conversing with Chris about it a few days ago, really.”
14- WHY KISSING ON SCREEN IS NOT A BIG DEAL
Despite the fact that their fellowship was looking extraordinary so far, Johansson and Evans didn’t really cooperate again until 2007’s The Nanny Diaries.
Johansson was very occupied in the middle of, featuring in Woody Allen’s Match Point and Christopher Nolan’s superb The Prestige. In the interim, Evans got his first taste of playing a comic book hero when he featured as Johnny Storm, otherwise known as the Human Torch, in Fantastic Four. While the film was inadequately checked on, everybody singled out Evans’ exhibition as the wisecracking Johnny as probably the best part to the film and its spin-off.
At that point the two companions rejoined on The Nanny Diaries, a big-screen adjustment of the famous YA epic. Johansson stars as a college graduate who goes to fill in as a babysitter for a rich New York family. Tucked away in their home, she needs to shuffle their brokenness and her young charge who is in urgent need of consideration.
Evans plays Johansson’s adoration intrigue, suitably named “Harvard Hottie.” Let’s simply state, you can see the sparkles between the two entertainers and play-professing to be infatuated didn’t appear as though it was a very remarkable task.
The entertainer once discussed kissing Evans onscreen with Access Hollywood. “Any reason to draw near to Chris Evans is wonderful… Now, we’re old and tainted, so it resembles, ‘Welcome him on!’ No serious deal. Fly in the Tic-Tacs. Get this show on the road.”
13-SCARLETT CONVINCED CHRIS TO JOIN THE MCU
At that point the Marvel Cinematic Universe came calling for them both. Johansson was the first to enter the MCU when she was given a role as Natasha Romanoff, otherwise known as Black Widow – the Russian covert operative and S.H.I.E.L.D. specialist. Dark Widow made her fantastic introduction in 2010’s Iron Man 2 and the entertainer’s exhibition was a hit directly off the bat; crowds and comic-book enthusiasts the same adored her from the earliest starting point.
At the point when it came time to cast Steve Rogers otherwise known as Captain America for The First Avenger, Marvel looked to Evans, who surely exemplified the piece of the all-American war saint. The on-screen character, in any case, was fantastically fearful to join another Marvel establishment, not just on the grounds that his raid with Fantastic Four was all around panned, yet in addition in light of the fact that, as he has said previously, he didn’t have the foggiest idea whether needed to be burdened with a prominent establishment and the being a fan that accompanied it.
Johansson told Variety she addressed her old buddy about taking on the Cap job. “I conversed with him a little about it since I had just marked on to do Iron Man. Obviously, the weight wasn’t on my shoulders like it was on Chris’. I was playing a character that Marvel was put resources into, yet we didn’t have the foggiest idea whether the crowd would have been absolutely behind the Widow by then. It resembled I was plunging my toe in. He was taking the full brunt of the creation on his shoulders. It can feel like a plated confine now and again.”
12-THEIR ONSCREEN SIZZLE
We are certain happy the two of them chose to stick it out in the MCU. Benefiting from their effectively awesome onscreen science, the two companions at long last showed up together as their Marvel characters in the first Avengers movie, and keeping in mind that they don’t have a very remarkable opportunity to investigate their characters’ relationship, the notions of what is to come flourish.
The two on-screen characters at that point headed out to make different motion pictures after The Avengers. Johansson featured with Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the outside the box sentimental comedy Don Jon and voiced the sentient PC in the Spike Jonze science fiction romance Her with Joaquin Phoenix, while Evans featured in the cool dystopian thriller Snowpiercer.
At that point came Captain America: Winter Soldier and that is when things truly began to start onscreen among Johansson and Evans as their MCU change personalities.
“It’s decent for Chris and I to get the opportunity to accomplish emotional work together,” Johansson once told the L.A. Times. “We function admirably together, I think, and appreciate each other as entertainers, and we’re accustomed to having the option to toss the ball to and fro in light of the fact that we’ve done that in the past in different movies that we’ve done. We’re additionally more established entertainers now and progressively open to taking as much time as is needed. You can trust that the feeling will come and let the second occur.”
11-CHRIS CROSSED THE LINE AND APOLOGIZED
All through everything, the two besties have consistently viewed themselves as more like sibling and sister than all else.
“She is a delightful woman. I love that young lady, man,” Evans once spouted to Playboy (via OK!) about Johansson. “She resembles my sister. She’s only probably the most brilliant individuals I know. It’s extraordinary when somebody with an extremely sharp mind needs to have some good times. A great deal of my amigos who like to have some good times are somewhat lowbrow, and that is entertaining. It’s charming, yet you can giggle at just such huge numbers of farts.”
Johansson concurred when asked on an honorary pathway. “He resembles the greater, yet by one way or another more youthful, somewhat irritating yet continually enchanting sibling.”
Evans once even got into a touch of boiling water with his selfless jokes.
He and Avengers co-star Jeremy Renner were doing press for Age of Ultron when a journalist inquired as to whether Black Widow may have any sentimental enthusiasm for either Cap or Hawkeye. He and Jeremy Renner tolled in, chuckling and utilizing misanthrope slurs to disgrace Black Widow.
It was said in a kidding way, however the remarks got some reaction, with fans getting out the entertainers for sexism and sexism. The two of them freely apologized for their lack of care. Evans said in a statement to L.A. Times. “We replied in an adolescent and hostile manner that legitimately irritated a few fans. I think twice about it and truly apologize.”
10-THE SECRET BEHIND BLACK WIDOW AND CAPTAIN AMERICA
Top and Black Widow as characters share a bond, which the entertainers felt truly fit into their own cozy relationship and permitted them to show their common reverence and regard for each other.
“I believe there’s a usefulness there,” Evans told Entertainment Tonight. “There’s a void that they each fill for one another, and I think they’ve every sort of needed to confront a tad of, similar to, an annihilation of a conviction framework en route. They’ve each inclined toward each other for various reasons. I think from numerous points of view Cap positively admires Black Widow. She’s constantly been somewhat more shrewd, somewhat more encountered, somewhat more callused in the manner in which the world truly is… I think in the recent years before we get in [Infinity War], they’ve extremely sort of become this stone for each other.”
“This character, since she’s this sort of hesitant superhuman in light of the fact that she doesn’t have superpowers since she has this extremely rich backstory that doesn’t simply include getting into a suit and transforming into something different, she’s earned her scars,” Johansson said.
“Why I think their science is so acceptable together is they’re extremely dear friends,” director Joe Russo told L.A. Times separately. “They brought their very own great deal thoughts to their scenes and a ton of individual vitality to those scenes to make what we like to call a work spouse/work husband connection between those two characters.”
9-WHAT SCARLETT THINKS CHRIS SHOULD DO AFTER AVENGERS
Since Johansson has known Evans for such a long time, she would already be able to foresee what the on-screen character may do once he hangs up his shield as Captain America (which he has said he’s most likely going to do after Avengers 4).
In W Magazine’s “Screen Tests” arrangement, Scarlett seemed to answer a question on whether Chris would be incredible in a film melodic.
“He’s ideal to do a melodic in light of the fact that he’s so manly and it’s exceptionally uncommon,” she snickered.
At that point she included that the majority of her male co-stars in the Avengers movies are simply monstrous softies. “Male entertainers are delicate, so I don’t feel like it gets to machismo. Everyone on the set, on the off chance that you sing the initial line to Carousel, it will be trailed by like five different entertainers singing pair.”
Evans really has sung in his films previously. Like Johansson referenced before, both of them sang in A Perfect Score but he likewise did an entire melodic number farce with co-star Chyler Leigh and others in Not Another Teen Movie. Johansson additionally has a side vocation as an artist. She’s discharged a couple of collections previously, incorporating a coordinated effort with Pete Yorn.
We’re thinking Johansson and Evans should collaborate and do a melodic together!
8-THEY KEEP CAP AND BLACK WIDOW IN THE FRIEND ZONE
In The Winter Soldier, it appeared Steve and Natasha may really go there and fire up a genuine sentiment – in any event, sharing an onscreen kiss. To be reasonable, the liplock was done so they could stay, dislike a genuine kiss or anything. All things considered, fans were wild about these two.
“It’s not so much characterized,” Evans said to L.A. Times. “I imagine that is the thing that makes it progressively powerful. It’s what makes it increasingly like life. Only one out of every odd single male and female bond will be established in sentiment. Once in a while motion pictures make things excessively great.”
“In any case, the science is there, which is significant,” Johansson included. “Because they’re not impractically included doesn’t imply that they’re not still pulled in to one another as individuals. I like that the entryway is open a tad.”
As we presently know, a sentiment wasn’t intended to be. Natasha winds up having the hots for Bruce Banner (played by Mark Ruffalo), while Steve has affections for CIA Agent Sharon Carter (played by Emily VanCamp), the fabulous niece of Rogers’ first love, S.H.I.E.L.D. Specialist Peggy Carter.
“I don’t think a sentiment has ever truly been noticeable all around for these two,” Johansson said to ET. “Sorry to frustrate. They have such a common regard for each other, actually and expertly, that I don’t believe there’s space for a sentiment in this. We have a world to spare.”
7-THEIR PRANK BATTLES
The indication of an incredible kinship is to ready to pull off a trick or two on one another. Scarlett Johansson and Chris Evans are no exemption to this, particularly Evans who truly got Johansson great one time when she showed up on a fragment of The Ellen Show.
Johansson was on the show in 2015, discussing their most recent Marvel movie Avengers: Age of Ultron. The discussion she had with have Ellen DeGeneres was humorous all alone. DeGeneres got some information about being the main lady with a lot of male co-stars.
“All things considered, Lizzie [Olsen] and Cobie [Smulders] are in it, which is useful,” said Johansson. “I likewise encircle myself with a multitude of ladies to kind of secure me against all the testosterone. Furthermore, we are discussing entertainers… they are extremely sensitive,” which gets the crowd giggling. “I mean [Chris] Hemsworth’s hair takes any longer than mine.”
At that point when DeGeneres began getting some information about Evans, Johansson said she knew him “excessively well,” as Chris sneaked up behind her – and terrified the living crap out of her.
It was a great closest companion move, as Johansson was truly astonished and Evans savored the occasion.
Later in the scene, the two besties played a round of “Justice fighter? I Hardly Know Her,” to perceive how well they truly knew one another. It was a hoot!
6-THAT ONE TIME ON THE USO TOUR…
Johansson and Evans had an awesome time doing a USO Holiday Tour in 2016, visiting servicemen and servicewomen who were positioned in Turkey, Qatar, and Afghanistan.
At the Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, the two took part in a 20-minute Q&A, addressing inquiries from the group, including a few children who were there.
One kid inquired as to whether Evans and Johansson were companions, in actuality. “No, I can’t stand her,” Evans prodded.
“Scarlett is really probably the most seasoned companion… It’s pleasant in our business to have somebody you can go to, as a companion, however who can identify with the experience you’re experiencing. Outside of the film, we are generally excellent companions.”
Another little fellow inquired as to whether they could be another other of the Marvel characters, “would you need to be Iron Man or… what?”
“All things considered, not Batman!” Evans kidded. “It’s intense, on the grounds that [Robert Downey Jr.]’s done such an extraordinary occupation. In any case, as a Cap, you don’t get the opportunity to make the jokes. It was significantly increasingly fun as [Fantastic Four’s] Johnny Storm since I got the opportunity to be clever. Top doesn’t break the jokes, and it is ideal to have the option to be interesting now and again. I would say…Iron Man.”
Johansson answered, “Who might I rather be: You or Iron Man? That is a ludicrous question…Wait, do I need to be a hero? I can be anything? I would be content with the Terminator.”
5-CHRIS HAS BEEN PUSHING FOR A BLACK WIDOW MOVIE
Johansson and Evans are continually paying special mind to one another and supporting each other in their next undertakings, particularly now that the Avengers movies are approaching the end goal.
As we referenced, Evans has as of late spoken about leaving the establishment for good. In a New York Times profile, the actor said, “You need to get off the train before they push you off.”
Evans has been supportive of Johansson getting her own Marvel film as Black Widow.
“[Johansson] is so acceptable at all that she does,” Evans once told Elle. “She’s had such an essential impact in different movies. She generally makes her essence so felt—in any event, when there are 50 distinctive superheroes going around onscreen. I wouldn’t be amazed if that occurs eventually. I’m certain Scarlett would be available to it.”
Presently, it would appear that it will occur. It was reported not long ago that Marvel is in the early phases of an independent film fixated on Natasha Romanoff’s story. We know from some speedy blazes in other Avengers movies that Nat has had an entirely dull past, so it ought to be a profound plunge for Johansson.
She told ET, “I love playing this character, and I think there is unquestionably a chance to investigate the Widow as a lady who has sort of make her mark and is settling on free and dynamic decisions for herself most likely for once in her life.”
4-THE BANTER IS TOO CUTE
Obviously, probably the best piece of Johansson and Evans’ kinship is watching them communicate while doing press for their MCU films. Their simplicity with each other is so clear and the two have built up such a short-hand.
Take for instance this trade in a video interview with Showbiz 411. When gotten some information about wearing the hero suits, Johansson clarified there’s around multi week during the shooting of the film in which each entertainer goes “rebel” and starts eating shoddy nourishment like “chicken wings and doughnuts.”
Evans is dismissing his butt at her remark. At that point he adds that they all need to get ready so the crowd knows the “Texas switch,” which means the movement between the entertainer and the stand-in. The entertainers must be fit as a fiddle and arranged. Johansson is staying there, gesturing, however then asks Evans, “Is the Texas switch a poker reference?” Evans isn’t exactly certain and attempts to clarify what he’s discussing, yet she continues penetrating, “Is it an old Western term? Be that as it may, for what reason is it the Texas switch?” Evans answers, “I don’t have a clue about its base.”
At that point the begin to go off on a significantly further digression when the journalist says Samuel L. Jackson keeps a little toy puppet of Black Widow in his pocket. This equitable dispatches Johansson and Evans into a wide range of to and fro exchange. We should simply say we could watch them play around with one another throughout the day.
3-THEY BOTH LOVE KIDS
On the off chance that the two were ever to discover sentiment, one thing is for sure – they’d be extraordinary guardians.
Evans has said that on the Marvel sets, he’s the single one however that he needs to settle down sooner or later. “I need to get hitched, however I need kids – to me that is a definitive thing,” he told Glamour U.K. “At the point when you’re old and on your passing bed, glancing back at your life it won’t be the movies you’ve made or what you’ve achieved, it’s the connections you have. You’re made due by things that issue – your loved ones and the individuals who love you back.”
Johansson really has a youthful girl who she imparts to her ex Romain Dauric.
She recently shared a extraordinary story with Ellen DeGeneres. “If you approach her I’s job, she says, ‘Mom’s a superhuman,'” Johansson snickered.
She proceeded, “We had taken a break in shooting Infinity War because it was a very long shoot. I was going into the workplace – I was not doing anything film related, I resembled, ‘See you later, nectar, Mommy needs to go to work.’ And she resembled, ‘Who are you battling?’ I don’t have the foggiest idea whether that is something worth being thankful for, however better believe it, she thinks I battle individuals professionally. In the event that anyone has a customary uniform that they ordinarily wear to work, mine’s a bonded leather unitard.”
2-THEY MAKE EACH OTHER LAUGH
As we referenced, since the two companions have known each other for a long time and have now made six motion pictures together (four of them being Avengers movies), one thing has stayed consistent: their liking for snickering constantly.
Scarlett once told Parade, “Despite the fact that the conditions of our lives have changed and we’ve moved and our vocations have advanced, he’s essentially the equivalent. We have a similar sort of affinity between us, a similar short-hand, he’s similarly as ridiculous and sincere as he’s constantly been. He has a ton of modesty to him and an extraordinary comical inclination. I think Marvel was fortunate to have that history between us so they can misuse it for the film!”
“I generally state that in the event that you were on an excursion, you’d need Scarlett in your vehicle,” Evans told Vogue. “She’s sort of continually snickering, in any event, when she’s feeling awful.”
Need progressively evidence? Here’s another adorable video of both of them on the Winter Soldier press visit, being asked by a British journalist from Empire magazine to do their nearby “cool” faces. Evans pulls off a quite decent one – and afterward does an impersonation to the initial credits for Beverly Hills 90210. But Johansson just continues turning and grinning enormously for her “cool” face. This fair makes Chris laugh hysterically.
1-SO JUST IGNORE THE DATING RUMORS… THEY DO.
Presently we go to the steady bits of gossip that ScarJo and Evans are in reality more than companions, theory that has been hounding the two nearly from the earliest starting point.
The gossipy tidbits truly warmed up a year ago, in any case, when Johansson separated Romain Dauriac, and Evans split from sweetheart Jenny Slate. Suddenly, they were both single and apparently inclining toward one another for help during their shared breakups. They were spotted out getting something to eat or simply hanging, and they were even spotted at the 2017 Oscars together, whispering and chuckling with one another in the crowd.
Furthermore, Johansson conceded she didn’t care for being distant from everyone else. She said in a meeting, “I’m adapting now how to be distant from everyone else just with myself. Be that as it may, it’s trying. It doesn’t imply that I don’t feel alone on occasion or forlorn, yet I’m understanding that I’ve generally had this other half out there.”
Numerous newspaper title texts sprinkled that they were at long last dating and what a great world it was, yet tsk-tsk, it simply wasn’t accurate. While reports state Evans and Slate are still toying with the hit or miss, thing, Johansson has discovered love with Saturday Night Live head author Colin Jost, with the two creation their first honorary pathway appearance a month ago.
As much as fans may need it, Scarlett and Chris are simply going to be BFFs until the end of time.
Scarlett Johansson And Chris Evans Relationship
Scarlett Johansson and Chris Evans had such a great amount of science as Marvel’s Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow and Steve Rogers/Captain America, there are MCU fan presents aplenty paying tribute on Nat and Steve. Indeed, one Captain America: The Winter Soldier fan posted a video named “steve and nat having sexual strain for 3 minutes and 11 seconds in a row” (you can watch it beneath) and it’s actually that.
Scarlett Johansson is as of now advancing Black Widow, which despite everything opens May 1, 2020 until further notice, and she as of late strolled down MCU a world of fond memories to examine a portion of her preferred scenes.
At the point when it went to that vehicle scene in The Winter Soldier, Scarlett Johansson revealed to EW it was her long-term companionship with Chris Evans that made the science work. They previously cooperated 10 years earlier in the 2004 secondary school parody The Perfect Score and rejoined in 2007 for The Nanny Diaries. Johansson said that establishment helped make the Nat and Steve dynamic of the MCU so easy.
When you see Nat and Steve in the car in Winter Solider and they’re talking to each other, it’s really a result of 10 years of knowing somebody and being able to have a kind of intimacy with them that I think you get from just spending a lot of time with somebody and knowing their soft underbelly. We had a lot of fun doing it.
Scarlett Johansson And Chris Evans Childhood
Anybody with eyes can see that Scarlett Johansson and Chris Evans have extraordinary science. Why would that be? The pair have known each other practically everlastingly — particularly by Hollywood gauges. While many may think the two met on the arrangements of Marvel flicks, they really met somewhere else. How about we investigate the history between this famous, superhuman team.
Route in 2004, Johansson and Evans made their first film together. A high schooler satire heist film called The Perfect Score. The film includes a gathering of six adolescents who devise an arrangement to take the SAT answers, so they would all be able to get the ideal score on the test, and along these lines have a taken shots at a not too bad future.
Scarlett Johansson And Chris Evans Married
Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson sat down for a talk for “Assortment Studio: Actors on Actors.” For additional, get the Actors on Actors issue on Nov. 12, tune into PBS SoCal on Jan. 2 or remain tuned directly here at Variety.com.
When Scarlett Johansson first observes Chris Evans at our photograph shoot, she lets out a yell of euphoria. Maybe she’s recognized a tragically deceased family member, and, as it were, she has — Johansson and Evans initially met in their late adolescents on the parody “The Perfect Score,” played a sentimental two part harmony in “The Nanny Diaries” and proceeded to land lead jobs in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which arrived at a crescendo this previous spring with “Vindicators: Endgame.” This winter, both effectively turn away from superheroics: Johansson plays an on-screen character enduring a troublesome separation in Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story,” and a mother in Holocaust Germany in Taika Waititi’s humorous “Jojo Rabbit.” Evans, a long way from the temperate Captain America, is the pretentious grandson of a renowned author in Rian Johnson’s enticing homicide secret “Blades Out.”
Chris Evans: I simply saw “Marriage Story,” and it’s exceptional. I’ll be stunned in case you’re not showered with grants, however what made you need to recount to that story? It’s overwhelming. It’s dim.
Scarlett Johansson: Probably 10 years prior, Noah and I attempted to take a shot at something different together. We sort of produced for a tad, and afterward it didn’t wind up being correct, and when it was prepared to shoot, I was somewhat past it. It wasn’t the correct fit.
I’m certain you’ve most likely had that experience previously, where you feel like possibly something didn’t turn out to be expertly and you’re similar to: “Well, there goes that relationship.” That’s never transpired?
Evans: No.
Johansson: Yeah, right. I was so surprised when he called me years later to meet and talk about something. It totally came out of the blue. I met with him in New York, and it was like no time had passed at all. We kind of shifted right into this moment where he pitched me this story a little bit, and I myself was actually in the middle of going through a divorce. It was such a strange coincidence.
Evans: How much of the script was on the page already prior to signing on?
Johansson: It was nothing. It was just a concept.
Evans: Wow! Did you have input? Because one of the things that is so tragic about it is that, when you think of a divorce story, you imagine much more about contentious, prickly, almost enemies. But a lot of the movie, there’s two people trying to make it work.
Johansson: When I received the script, we’d spoken so much about our relationships — and what it was like to be single parents, and our families — and all of that stuff kind of made it in there. It’s complicated, right?
Evans: It’s heartbreaking.
Johansson: I know even when we were doing all of the “Endgame” and “Infinity War” stuff, you were prepping for “Knives Out” already.
Evans: Yeah. We were doing the reshoots for those last couple of bits. I don’t know if you were there. You were so in and out, because you died. If you haven’t seen it —
Johansson: Maybe too bad! I was talking to Noah while we were doing “Infinity War” and “Endgame” stuff. It was something for me to hold on to during those often tedious days of whatever. All that action storytelling that we have to do where you have to be in it for these little segments of time.
Evans: There’s a lot of things about those movies where it’s not just the actual filmmaking process. It’s very start, stop, start, stop with little bits and pieces of the action. Plus, it’s roles that we’ve played for a really long time, really familiar. No disrespect to those movies — I love those movies — but to come off of them and have a completely different approach to find a character, to collaborating with other artists, it’s just unchartered waters coming off a Marvel movie. It’s just exciting to get a change of pace.
Johansson: How does it work with Rian?
Evans: He’s wonderful. He knows what he wants. I love the idea of writer-director combos, because when a bunch of people read one piece of material, we all have a subjective opinion on what to interpret. When you have a writer-director, they can say: “No, this is exactly what I meant.” Rian is very task attuned. Two takes and you’re done.
Johansson: Really?
Evans: Which, as an actor, you’re terrified, because if you give me 50 takes, I’ll take them.
Johansson: How come you don’t ask for more?
Evans: It takes me a couple of days to get comfortable on set to do that. Because if you ask for more, and they don’t get better, it’s going to be harder to ask for more in the future.
Johansson: That’s a funny way of looking at it.
Evans: Yeah. It’s a really insecure, egoic way of looking at it.
Johansson: I feel if you have an idea for something, and this is probably good advice for actors that are kind of coming up or starting out in film, you should ask for another take. Or you feel maybe you have something else in you that you’re curious about, you should ask for another take because it will haunt you forever.
Evans: Sure.
Johansson: Noah is in stark contrast to Rian. He’s relentless, and you can do 50 takes. He only uses one camera, and he’s very specific about the words are the words. Every hesitation, every unfinished sentence, everyone talking over one another is all completely scripted.
Evans: Nothing is improvised in that movie?
Johansson: Not a single word.
Evans: You guys both need Oscars, because I was like, “Oh, this is improvised.” It’s like theater.
Johansson: It totally was like theater. I wanted to ask you about your experience in theater too, because you’re so good.
Evans: It’s like you’re my only actor friend that actually came to see the play [2018’s Broadway revival of “Lobby Hero”].
Johansson: They paid me.
Evans: Yup.
Johansson: Were you nervous before you did it?
Evans: Terrified. After a while, the process of filmmaking does get stale. You just want to try and find a new way into what has become very familiar. I think what I was hunting for was that prolonged period of time within a scene, thinking it would allow this liberation. It couldn’t have been more to the contrary. When you’re onstage it’s just like, “Man!” — because you have so much to remember.
Johansson: I didn’t feel that way watching you though.
Evans: Original content, it’s not there very often. That is one of the best things about “Knives Out.” It was something that I read that felt fresh and new. I think this weird chicken-and-the-egg thing, who started it? Did audiences only start going to lowbrow stuff, so that’s what we started making? Or is it that we made it first, and now that’s all we’re offered?
Johansson: Hey, speak for yourself. It’s interesting, because a couple of people in the past couple of days have mentioned to me that a couple of extremely esteemed directors have been really vocal about how the whole Marvel universe and big blockbusters are really, like, “despicable” and “the death of cinema.” At first I thought that seems kind of old-fashioned, and somebody had to explain to me, because it seemed so disappointing and sad in a way. They said, “I think what these people are saying is that at the actual theater, there’s not a lot of room for different kinds of movies, or smaller movies, because the theater is taken up by huge blockbusters.”
It made me think about how people consume content now, and how there’s been this huge sea change with their viewing experience.
Evans: I think original content inspires creative content. I think new stuff is what keeps the creative wheel rolling. I just believe there’s room at the table for all of it. It’s like saying a certain type of music isn’t music. Who are you to say that?
Johansson: What are you looking for now?
Evans: Every couple of months, I decide I’m done acting. This has been my thing for decades now. I’m always looking for a way out, but I do love it. I think TV right now, those creative minds are given a bit more freedom. It feels like movies sometimes get inundated with studio notes, and all of a sudden, what was once an original idea becomes boiled down to the lowest common denominator, and then you have no one’s favorite movie but everyone’s lukewarm movie. I think that’s why people may be turning away, and looking to things like streaming service shows that actually are innovative.
Johansson: When I read the script for “Jojo Rabbit,” I had never seen anything like it before. But that film found its way through Fox Searchlight. That studio doesn’t shy away from stuff that’s subversive, and they’re happy to give it a theatrical release. There’s room for independent film for sure. I think people want diversity. They want to see different things.
What I’m actually curious about: You’re kind of looking at it as a director, if there’s something that continues to interest you? Where is your head with that stuff?
Evans: I’m trying to direct, but I don’t have the courage or focus to write. The hardest thing is finding material. The good material isn’t just sitting there untouched. It’s tough to find. When I directed, one of the tricky things was, I found some little broken-bird script, and I thought, “Oh, I can nurse this thing back to health.” In retrospect, I do think even the best version of the movie I directed, there may have been a ceiling based on the material. If it’s not on the page, I may have been — I don’t want to say naive — hopeful that we could elevate it beyond what the potential seemed to be.
You know what I’m curious about? Scarlett, what was it like meeting for the first time? What’s it been like working with me? Be nice.
Johansson: I’m trying to remember. It must have been on the set of “The Perfect Score” at some point in our rehearsal. We had a very at the time in-the-moment teen comedy, that actually now is somehow maybe relevant — about an SAT scandal.
Evans: It was almost 20 years ago.
Johansson: Yeah, it feels like a long time ago. We were just children then.
Evans: I think we all went out one night, and you couldn’t get in the club.
Johansson: Because I was 17. Yup, those were the days. You’ve always been such a great actor. You were great then, and so incredibly photogenic, and you just came alive on screen in a way that’s very uncommon. It was so nice to work with you, because I felt we had great chemistry as actors, and there was a naturalistic approach that I felt. Then we also got to work together on “The Nanny Diaries.”
Evans: Having “Avengers” be the biggest movie of all time —
Johansson: Is it the biggest movie of all time? Wow. We really do need to go on vacation.
Evans: We’ve been trying to organize this “Avengers” vacation. We deserve a little victory lap. It’s not just wonderful because you get to be a part of a pop culture phenomenon, the same way “Star Wars” impacted me. But I think what really will stay with me is the fact that the people we got to work with, truly there is not a bad apple in the bunch.
Johansson: It’s funny, because I remember back in “Iron Man 2” days, I think you had just finished filming the first “Cap.” It was so interesting that you and I were coming together again. We had no idea what we were making. It was just impossible to know what a phenomenon the Marvel Cinematic Universe or “The Avengers” would be. You jump at the chance, but having been through it myself with a partner that I was with, who also had another big iconic superhero thing he was working on, it’s the pressure. You don’t know how it’s going to go, right? It seems ridiculous now, but it could be career-ending.
Evans: Yeah. I feel unbelievably lucky to have been a part of something like that. It will be one of my treasured memories of life. Even when we went on to do “Avengers,” the first one, I think everybody was feeling very uneasy about the concept. It was just so absurd. It was a big endeavor. If this doesn’t work, the pipe dream that we’ve been hearing about could derail very quickly.
Johansson: Were you shocked by how well the first “Avengers” did?
Evans: After that, I knew there was a chance this could be something big.
Johansson: Would you come back?
Evans: To Marvel? Wow. Everything clicks when I get up. Recovery is not the same. You never say never. I love the character. I don’t know.
Johansson: Not a hard no.
Evans: It’s not a hard no, but it’s not an eager yes either. There are other things that I’m working on right now. I think Cap had such a tricky act to stick the landing, and I think they did a really nice job letting him complete his journey. If you’re going to revisit it, it can’t be a cash grab. It can’t be just because the audience wants to be excited. What are we revealing? What are we adding to the story? A lot of things would have to come together.
Johansson: It’s not obvious.
Evans: It doesn’t feel, at this time, that would be a thing.
Johansson: I wasn’t there for the last third of the film or whatever. I actually had no idea what was going to happen. I don’t know how it worked, exactly, if it was scripted. It was such a beautiful cathartic ending, and I loved that for Steve. I think he deserved that. It was all his happiness.
Evans: It’d be a shame to sour that. I’m very protective of it. It was such a precious time, and jumping onto the movie was a terrifying prospect to me. I said no a bunch of times, and there’s a million and one ways it could have gone wrong. It almost feels like maybe we should let this one sit.
Scarlett Johansson And Chris Evans Together
Yes! They are together. At some point or another, everybody in Hollywood will be engaged with Marvel Studios here and there or another. All things considered, the establishment is more grounded than any time in recent memory with 23 motion pictures — including the greatest hit ever, Avengers: Endgame — added to its repertoire. While the Marvel Cinematic Universe is absolutely a main thrust in the business, it’s additionally one serious systems administration opportunity.
