Scarlett Johansson is a private person who doesn’t believe in sharing details of her day-to-day life on social media. The actress says that her own divorce helped her prepare for a role in Chef
How was your experience of working with Jon Favreau againIJ
It’s strange that this film was not difficult to make. This was the easiest and most relaxing film I’ve ever done. There wasn’t anything comical in the film and I never thought of it as a comedy. I think Jon wanted to make a dramatic film. He didn’t try to over intellectualise it or make the characters more complex than they already were. It’s a very straightforward story that is logically directed and simply told. Simple is more fascinating than trying to over-complex or over-intellectualise something.
Chef has a lot to do with social media. How do you feel about social media todayIJ
Personally, I don’t feel the need to brand myself in that way. But as a means to share information and raise awareness, I feel the social-networking platforms are unprecedented. They’re amazing tools to communicate information — especially about different causes, crises or creative movements (like Chef). That said, I don’t have a Facebook or a Twitter account, and I don’t know how I feel about this idea of ‘Now, I’m eating dinner’ and wanting everyone to know that I’m having dinner at this time or maybe ‘I just mailed a letter and dropped off my kids’. According to me this is a very strange phenomenon. I can’t think of anything I’d rather do less than continuously share details of my everyday life. I’m always surprised that certain actors have Twitter accounts. I guess they use it in a way that works for them. But I’d rather prefer that people had less access to my personal life. If I could keep it all that way, I’d be a happy lady. I can’t imagine being that exposed or involved and sometimes I could barely return phone calls to my family. The idea of sharing things — I’m not good at that. I can’t even turn on my phone. I like to leave my phone in my trailer or my dressing room. I don’t like being too connected. That’s just the way I am.
Since you’ve become known as more of a public person, has the way you go about things changedIJ
As a person in the public eye, I have always felt of having good fortune for being able to shed a spotlight on different causes that I feel passionately about. I never tell people whom to vote for. I’m not telling people where to give their money, or what I am doing in my daily life but if there is to be a spotlight shed on me, then I’d like to direct that onto the causes I think are worthy or onto interesting and progressive figures.
On one hand you’re putting yourself out there to draw attention over things you think are important. But then, on the other hand, there are aspects of your personal life that you wish to keep private. How do you balance it allIJ
I don’t profess to know how to balance the positive and the negative media attention. It’s a gamble every time you put yourself out there, and, certainly, I’m always readjusting to it. But I hope it never becomes normal to feel scrutinised. I value my privacy and my personal life-and I certainly don’t exploit my personal life. Though this is not always in your control. There are, unfortunately, people who are interested in prying. So I think you have to protect your private life as much as you possibly can, and, at the same time, find ways to redirect that focus and turn the glare onto a positive thing. I don’t know how you do it or how anybody else has ever done it. You know, my favourite actors are enigmatic and mysterious. They never make an obvious choice in terms of the projects they do or who they work with or their craft. But the less I know about an actor, the more chance I have of allowing their own persona to slip away so I can get completely lost in the character they’re playing. The more that people think they know about your personal life, the difficult it becomes to preserve the character.
The film is about someone trying to move on after a divorce, what was it like to work in the film as Molly, specially after your own divorce with Ryan ReynoldsIJ
When I started to talk with Jon about the film, we shared our relationship experiences. We talked about what it feels like to have something that didn’t work out and the effect it has to your sense of self.
How different are you compared to what you were earlierIJ
Now I know myself better, I know more of my needs and wants in a relationship. And I know I have more tools to communicate, not just with my partner, but with myself. That’s not necessarily a reflection of who I was married to or what was happening in my marriage, but really where I was in my life. When I was first married, I was much younger. And now I have had the opportunity to work more on getting to know myself. Somebody who is able to work with somebody and stay in a relationship in the not-romantic moments is what makes you a better partner. I have more patience with myself, my partner and that probably comes with age.