Tete-a-tete with Scarlett Johansson

The actor talks candidly about her role as Black Widow in The Avengers.


Reuters May 03, 2012

LOS ANGELES:


The hype has been building for years and it couldn’t possibly be more deafening at this point.


After a series of summer blockbusters that individually introduced Iron Man, the Incredible Hulk, Thor and Captain America, all these Marvel comics characters come together alongside several other friends and foes in The Avengers, according to Detroit Free Press. With Joss Whedon as director, the characters couldn’t be in better hands. Samuel L Jackson steps fully into his role as the head of peacekeeping agency Shield who assembles the super-crew as part of his Avengers initiative to help fight Thor’s brother, Loki, who threatens to wipe out humanity. Reuters sat down with Scarlett Johansson who reprises her role as agent Natasha Romanoff aka
Black Widow.

Black Widow was introduced in Iron Man 2 but gets far more exposure in Avengers. How did you expand the character?

In this film director Joss Whedon and I talked about her past. Who is she? How does she get to be a mercenary? We both wanted to see the darker side of her — not just that she’s someone who is highly skilled, but why did she have to learn those skills?

You’re in top form physically on screen. What new fighting skills did you learn?

We incorporated this Wushu style of fighting when the Widow wields a huge alien gun. I had to learn how to spin it and move it. It was hard because I’d hit myself with it all the time. And it’s heavy. You learn by using a broom handle so you’re like, ‘Ah, I got it down, I’ve mastered it.’ Then all of a sudden they’re like, ‘Here’s the prop’ and you’re like, ‘What? This thing is 20 lbs!’

Black Widow also speaks in her native Russian language, which you seemed to nail. Was it difficult to learn?

I had two days, so I had to learn it phonetically. I knew what I was saying but I had to be able to pronounce it and breathe some life into the lines so that it didn’t sound like I was repeating some Berlitz tape. We hired this great Russian translator and she helped me say the words in a way that didn’t just sound like I was a parrot.

You often play with hair colour in your movie roles. Did you enjoy being a redhead for the duration of the shoot?

It’s nice because it allows me to go a bit under the radar — people don’t expect me to have that colour of hair. I’m always happy when I do it because it’s the first step of the process of finding the character again. And I’m really happy when I can wash the colour out because then I’m like, ‘Yes, It’s finished, we actually did it!’ Out it goes and you know you’ve accomplished something.’

You’re the only female Avenger in the cast. Did your male co-stars treat you any differently because of that?

If anything, the guys weren’t as delicate with me as I thought they would be. They like to play hard and always dragged me along for the ride. I’d always come back with battle wounds. But they’re a great group of guys. All of us got on so well.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 4th, 2012.

COMMENTS (1)

Jan vries | 11 years ago | Reply

congratulations

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