Scarlett Johansson Asteroid City ~ The director is notoriously demanding when it comes to bringing Wes Anderson’s very particular artistic vision to the big and small screens. But according to Scarlett Johansson, who spoke to Yahoo Entertainment about the incident, director Paul Thomas Anderson had trouble speaking when it came time to perform her short naked scene in Asteroid City, which was Anderson’s most recent project.
“Wes is probably the worst person to talk to about anything like that,” the actress admits with a giggle while referring to the topic. “He gets awkward whenever that subject comes up.”
Johansson gives the impression that she did not experience any difficulty when shooting one of her few naked moments; the only challenge she had throughout the sequence was attempting to acquire explicit directions from the director behind the camera. She makes light of the situation by joking, “I’ll leave it up to your imagination [how that went].” “Wes was kind of covering his face and clearing his throat quite a bit,” said the witness.
The fact that this is a Wes Anderson production means that Scarlett Johansson’s revelation is not there for the sake of being gratuitous; instead, it is a component of the greater meta-commentary that Asteroid City makes on role-playing and creative cooperation.
The events of the film take place in two overlapping realities: the first is a colorful desert landscape of Asteroid City, which is a recreation of a play that was never staged; the second is a black-and-white recreation of New York City in the 1950s, where a group of actors, modeled after the legendary Actors Studio, assist the playwright in realizing his vision.
In the scenes set in New York, Johansson plays a theatre group member. However, in the scenes set in Asteroid City, she plays the character of movie actress Midge Campbell. She and her daughter Dinah, played by Grace Edwards, are among the numerous families who have flocked to the eponymous desert town to participate in the Junior Stargazer convention, which honors the most talented and intelligent members of the next generation of space specialists.
There, they make the acquaintance of an ex-war photographer and recent widower named Augie Steenbeck (played by Jason Schwartzman) and his son, Woodrow (played by Jake Ryan). Romantic sentiments begin to develop between the two adults, who are now single, and between their children. Midge makes an off-hand remark to Augie that she had a naked scene in her performance repertoire. She then proceeds to show him the scene as she remarks.
Because the Asteroid City sections of Asteroid City are, ultimately, a fantastical depiction of 1950s Americana, Anderson fills those frames with references to era-specific pop culture. These include anything from Chuck Jones’s legendary Road Runner cartoons to The Day the Earth Stood Still.
And Midge herself, particularly regarding her haircut, seems to be a tribute to Judy Garland when A Star Was Born was released in 1954. When questioned about the Judy Garland link, Johansson reveals that she took inspiration from another Golden Age Hollywood figure… one who demanded the moon rather than the stars.
Johansson claims that before going to Asteroid City, she had only a limited number of experiences that resembled this one. “When Liev Schreiber and I did A View From the Bridge on Broadway together, there were some fiery nights,” she remembers now. “It was a great experience.” “It is clear that you despise one another! Not on a personal level, but it may reach the point where you get so immersed in it that you have meaningful and visceral experiences with other people that leave you feeling energized. It’s rather thrilling.
For his part, Schwartzman refers to those moments as a “double-meta experience” that took him outside his own body and head. He states, “I couldn’t help but go, ‘This is remarkable,'” and I agree. “Saying these sentences and observing how everyone reacted to the extraterrestrial gave you the impression that this is how they would seem if they were seeing anything for the first time. I can take part in that very moment.
“I wore [the alien suit] home” is a running joke attributed to Schwartzman. “Wandered out of the house with it on in open view… It is around 8,000 sizes too large!