Scarlett Johansson speaks the start of the director “Eleanor the Great”

Scarlett Johansson was at the origin of the camera last year during his beginnings as a director, Eleanor the Greatfixed on the performance of the star of the title June Squibb when she had a vision.

“I said to [one of my producing partners, Jonathan Lia]”If I do my job well and I do what I am supposed to do, I can imagine June walking on the Croisette at 95, with this incredible dramatic role in which she is so incredible” and I thought it would be my dream “, the veteran A-Lister, 40, explains to be selected for the Cannes Film Festival.”. I always treat it.

Johansson only has days to wrap his head around what will be an important step with two films in Cannes programming. In addition to the UN World Premiere in some respects Eleanor the GreatJohansson will browse the palace stages for the entry of the Wes Anderson competition The Phoenician Program Alongside the Co-Stars Tom Hanks, Benedict Cumberbatch, Benicio Del Toro, Willem Dafoe, Bryan Cranston, Jeffrey Wright, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Rice Ahmed, Rupert Friend, Hope Davi, Mia Threrepleton, Michael Cera and others.

But she will probably squeeze the most closely Squibb arm. Eleanor the Great Launches the nonagenarian as an Eleanor Morgenstein, a 94-year-old woman who suffers a devastating loss, leads her to move from Florida to New York to live with her daughter and her grandson. She walks without knowing it in a support group, where she reveals a story that attracts her a level of attention that she did not intend. A young journalism student, played by Erin Kellyman, pursues her as anie and mentor, but the situation is hidden, forcing Eleanor to face the truth. The cast is completed by the colleague of Johansson, the former Marvel Chiwetel Ejiofor and Jessica Hecht, with whom she shared the Broadway scene A view from the bridge (for which Johansson won a Tony).

Johansson, co-founder of these photos, recalls the script of Tory Kamen on her desk thanks to the veteran producer of Maven Screen Media Céline cattle with a personal note from Squibb, who was already attached. “Basically, never or very, very rarely, I read a script and thought:” Oh, I know how I can direct this. “It doesn't really happen to me,” explains the twice nominated at the Oscars, who plays the next Jurassic World Rebirth. “This script was so moving and it had such potential that, strangely, I felt very certain that it was something that I could be able to do.”

She had only jumped in the director's chair only twice before, first on the 2009 short film These vagabond shoes With Kevin Bacon followed by a special concert of 2015, American Express UNSTAGED: Ellie Goulding. (Johansson was also joined to direct an adaptation of Summer crosspieceA Truman's novel once lost, which has never materialized.) Even with the weight of a Marvel superstar behind, obtaining Eleanor Manufactured was a Herculean task for many reasons that are not limited to species, time, insurance, history, you call it. “Things like this take eternity to do,” says Johansson. “It would be easier to do something that was the continuation of a film of $ 180 million or a gender film that was lower. To get a lot, a lot, much less money for an independent film with an original story that has a main actor who was 94 years old was very, very, very difficult.”

But Squibb's involvement has also fueled fire. “June felt like making the film and we had to take advantage of it,” notes Johansson of her main lady, whose fame has reached new heights thanks to the well -received darling. Thelma. “I knew that if I connected to direct it, the period of time to do it would be fast. We had to turn in winter, and when I got the script, it was probably in July or August. ”

This led to a “gigantic jostling” to organize the pieces in time to shoot in New York. “Each day, the film collapsed in 400 different ways,” continues Johansson. Asked to develop details, she delivers: “Oh my God, so many different ways. It once seemed that we were going to be able to obtain the majority of our money from an independent financing company, then until the wire, so that they did it, we should have completely dismantled the whole terrain that led the narrative engine of the film.

The filmmakers found a Savior in Sony Pictures Classics which provided “a great full moment” for Johansson. She was 10 years old when she played in one of the first films in the label, 1996 Manny & Lo. “I was obviously a big fan of everything they have turned off forever,” praises Johansson. “I remember seeing the blue title card with Sony Pictures Classics on it and I remember so well because it was a part independent of Sony felt like a big problem. They really got [Eleanor]And they entered and saved the day so that we can do our start date. I am so grateful that there are companies that still make original ideas and put faith in the first directors. »»

The distribution of Johansson also has a lot of self -confidence. During an appearance on New York liveHecht completed Johansson as “oriented towards detail”, “meticulous” and “so loving” to help him show his character while Squibb said THR That it is impossible not to fall in love with her director of list A. “She is so earth-to-earth. She is so real. We really met at this level, both of us, because we are both in this way, “says Squibb. “With her knowledge as an actress, she immediately knew what I was doing, where I was going and how I was moving everything. It's wonderful because you don't have it often. I worked with wonderful directors who do not have this kind of knowledge like Scarlett. ”

Knowledge was well deserved. Johansson spent a life on film sets, going back to his beginnings at the age of 9 North. “Whatever 10,000 hours [to master something]I have quadrupled that, “she explains.” I grew up on sets, and I am a huge sucker of efficiency. Even in my acting work, I can read a call sheet and tell you exactly what will make us late and what we owe the next day.

What she did not know before planting her feet on her own together is what it would really feel to direct the actors. She declared in previous interviews that she had picked up tips from the job of almost all the casmers for which she worked, an enviable list which includes Anderson, Christopher Nolan, Noah Baumbach, Taika Waititi, Cate Shortland, Brothers Coen and Russo, Sofia Coppola, Woody Allen, Cameron Crowe, Spike Jonze, but Camer Crowe, Jonathan glaze, Spike Jonze, but Camer Crowe, it was it Iron Man 2 The boss Jon Favreau who stuck with her. He told Johansson that he had focused on the “unique style of everyone and what they needed” in order to lead them as best as an individual.

“I did not know what it would be like at all, and I did not necessarily have the confidence that I would be able to direct the actors,” she said. “But by doing so, I realized that I always work with actors. I work with directors and actors at the development stage, in the rehearsal process, blocking and giving notes, taking this and applying this. This part of it was almost immediately natural.”

So what kind of director is Johansson? “I governs with an iron fist. I have my own tent and no one can come there – NeverShe is kidding, becoming serious quickly to add that it is difficult for her to have a perspective on what others see. In addition, she is much more comfortable complimenting her ACE employees.

“I was really inspired by everyone's ideas, their capacities and what they brought to the table,” she said, distinguishing the heads of department, the director of photography, the casting director, the composer and below. She continues by saying that everyone signed for the concert not for money but because they believed in history. “It is so universal that he feels personal because he deals with themes that reflect deep human experiences. They knew there was no money, but it's such a special story and they could just see it as I could see.

Invited to put his vision to the test once again imagining what the future holds behind the camera, Johansson says that she is the game as long as the equipment corresponds to what she found in Eleanor. “Whatever I work then, whatever the size or gender, I would look for these same types of deep characters and it would be important for me to try to find stories focused on performance.”

For the moment, however, she will take advantage of this moment, and this realization of a dream comes true by taking Squibb to Cannes for a walk on the Croisette: “First in Cannes, I do not know how I will be able to treat its enormousness. It makes me nervous, but I am also excited. There is in fact a word that she invented to describe the feeling, inspired by her 10 -year -old daughter, who often says that she is afraid of something on the horizon until Johansson directs her towards the right words: “It is the nervous quote.”

This story appeared in the May 7 issue of the Hollywood Reporter Magazine. Click here to subscribe.