{"id":486201,"date":"2026-05-15T15:19:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T15:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/486201\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T15:19:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T15:19:11","slug":"exclusive-scarlett-johansson-talks-her-paper-tiger-transformation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/486201\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive: Scarlett Johansson Talks Her \u2018Paper Tiger\u2019 Transformation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tJames Gray<\/a> was sure Scarlett Johansson<\/a> would say no. \u201cI didn\u2019t think Scarlett Johansson had any interest in working with me on any level,\u201d the acclaimed filmmaker says. \u201cI don\u2019t even know if she\u2019s aware of this, but multiple times, I wanted to work with her. I\u2019ve been kind of obsessed with working with Scarlett for a long time so I had total pessimism about it.\u201d Listening in on an adjacent Zoom box, Johansson nods while holding her poker face like only great actors can. Then, when it\u2019s her turn to respond, she smirks: \u201cI won\u2019t comment on the pessimism part\u2026but James and I have met before to discuss different things, so he\u2019s actually not being totally forthcoming. He did know that I was interested.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tGray clarifies: \u201cI was extremely nervous. I was terrified that she was going to think it\u2019s preposterous and silly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThen Johansson read the script for\u00a0Paper Tiger, which debuts this weekend in Cannes<\/a>. \u201cI was like, \u2018Oh, I know I can do this. I don\u2019t necessarily know how I\u2019m going to do it, but I know that there\u2019s something here that I can do and that I can be additive,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cIt had so many elements that I loved. It\u2019s a big story inside of a small story.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tJohansson has made a habit of effortlessly mixing fizzy tentpole fare such as\u00a0Jurassic World: Rebirth\u00a0and Mike Flanagan\u2019s upcoming take on\u00a0The Exorcist\u00a0\u2014 currently filming, and thereby preventing Johansson from attending the\u00a0Paper Tiger\u00a0premiere on the Croisette, she says \u2014 with challenging, chewy auteur-driven projects from the likes of Noah Baumbach and Wes Anderson.\u00a0Paper Tiger\u00a0falls firmly in the latter category.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe drama stars Johansson and Miles Teller<\/a> as Hester and Irwin Pearl, parents to two boys in late \u201880s New York, holding tight to the flicker of dreams, new and old, for bigger lives, as well as the crushing weight of the sense that they might be fading away. Irwin gets drawn into a sketchy new moneymaking scheme with his suave brother Gary (Adam Driver<\/a>), leading to an unsettling encounter that places the family in serious danger.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tMiles Teller, Adam Driver, Roman Engel, Gavin Goudey and Johansson in \u2018Paper Tiger.\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCannes Film Festival<\/p>\n

\n\tHester is the heart of this story: A stay-at-home mom determined to fight for more \u2014 and left to contend with a narrower set of options once tragic news sets in. \u201cI liked the idea of Hester being feminine and soft and graceful because she has a lot of chutzpah inside her,\u201d Johansson says. The star speaks with a movingly affectionate understanding of the character: \u201cShe loves fashion magazines and going to the movies \u2014 she loves romantic comedies and all things romantic \u2014 and window shopping. All of those things are such an important part of who she is and how she presents herself. She should be in the middle of her life and striving for more \u2014 vivacious and full of life. That\u2019s how I envisioned her.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tHer approach hits its most poignant register, then, as bad news piles up: \u201cWomen give up their dream for their husband and take a step back, and the dream becomes more of a dream for their family. It\u2019s so common. I\u2019ve seen it in my friends, I\u2019ve seen it in my family. I just know in my bones what that is \u2014 there\u2019s a sadness about it and a beauty about it. It\u2019s such a bittersweet thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPaper Tiger\u00a0is rich with the texture of life, and even as its suspenseful crime-drama architecture harkens back to Gray\u2019s earlier work, the vivid, period-specific family portraiture is the main attraction here, showcasing his evolution behind the camera. \u201cTo be very pretentious about it, the intention was to try to make a very classical drama. The bonds of the film are both marital and familial, father and mother and son, two brothers, mother and daughter \u2014 it\u2019s about very elemental bonds of human relationships,\u201d Gray says. \u201cPeople sometimes shit on that idea, \u2018classical\u2019 \u2014 they equate it with \u2018old-fashioned,\u2019 but the two are not the same thing. Internal conflict, struggle, love, emotion \u2014 that is never old-fashioned. That\u2019s beautiful, that\u2019s what it means to be a human being, and the minute that gets old-fashioned, you may as well just raise the white flag.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGray has long advocated for supporting this scope of cinema for theaters \u2014 Neon acquired U.S. rights just as its Cannes selection was announced \u2014 and has only leaned in more as his career has progressed. He went into\u00a0Paper Tiger\u00a0with a crucial question for himself: \u201cHow do you make a movie where the whole point of it is the expression of love?\u201d Johansson proved crucial in answering that through her performance. Long heralded for her naturalistic work in dramas like\u00a0Marriage Story\u00a0and\u00a0Lost in Translation, the two-time Oscar nominee goes big and loud in\u00a0Paper Tiger. The accent is thick, the curls are curling, the emotion runs hot in all directions. Yet every choice is fully rooted in the material \u2014 the \u201clayers of history\u201d within the script, as she puts it, and the memories and sounds and images of Johansson\u2019s own family.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tJames Gray with Anne Hathaway<\/a> at the Cannes Film Festival<\/a> in 2022, where he premiered his last film, \u2018Armageddon Time<\/a>.\u2019<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe voice is so familiar to me \u2014 I grew up in New York and my mom was from the Bronx and my grandmother was from Brownsville and my grandfather was from Coney Island,\u201d she says. \u201cThe neighborhoods, humor, irony, all of that, is fun to express because it\u2019s part of the fabric of who I am culturally and where I come from. Even my grandmother, Dorothy, her mother spoke Yiddish only to her, and there\u2019s a real musicality to the dialect that\u2019s so specific.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFrom day one, she embraced that quality \u2014 a handful of times, she admits, in excess: \u201cJames would sometimes say to me, \u2018It\u2019s too much: You\u2019re not a yenta from Brownsville!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGray puts up a finger, smiles and waits his turn to respond. \u201cScarlett would never do something that wasn\u2019t real,\u201d he explains. \u201cYou have to be careful because it can be totally real, but it will fall outside the realm of the language of the movie.\u201d He and Johansson felt totally in sync as they modulated the tone. \u201cYou\u2019re supposed to say this stuff, but I couldn\u2019t be more sincere when I say one of the really great joys I\u2019ve ever had as a director was working with Scarlett,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t have to tell her how to come at a scene \u2014 she knows what to do.\u201d Johansson adds of their process, \u201cIt\u2019s not too studied. There\u2019s room to play, and it\u2019s such a joy to be able to work like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGray has worked with a ton of decorated actors over the years, including Oscar winners Joaquin Phoenix, Anthony Hopkins, Brad Pitt, Gwyneth Paltrow, Charlize Theron, Marion Cotillard and Anne Hathaway (who was originally supposed to star in\u00a0Paper Tiger\u00a0opposite Jeremy Strong<\/a>, in a reunion from Gray\u2019s previous feature\u00a0Armageddon Time; scheduling problems led to the recastings). In these stacked ensembles, he has seen it all.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI made a picture once with \u2014 well, I won\u2019t say, but two actors who were competing over one another, in this phase of their careers, and it became completely ugly and ridiculous,\u201d Gray teases. \u201cI\u2019ve had all kinds of weird circumstances, but\u00a0Paper Tiger\u00a0was very much a dream.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tJohansson shares only a handful of scenes with her\u00a0Marriage Story\u00a0co-star Driver \u2014 \u201cI would\u2019ve loved to have had even more scenework with him, I love working with him,\u201d she says \u2014 but grew close to Teller: \u201cHe\u2019s so unexpectedly tender. I went away for a couple of weeks to do the press for\u00a0Jurassic\u00a0\u2014 I felt crazy to leave, but I had to go \u2014 and when I was gone, I\u2019d get photographs of my makeup station from Miles and he\u2019d be like, \u2018Where\u2019s Hester?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTeller was not alone. Johansson made her mark on that set, in large part through her indelible characterization. \u201cScarlett\u2019s last day on set was just about one of the hardest days I\u2019ve had \u2014 I was so sad,\u201d Gray says. \u201cWhen you make an emotional investment in something \u2014 and the major thread is to communicate love and sympathy, which is what we hoped that the film would convey \u2014 you feel yourself feeling the same thing as when you watch those actors on a daily basis\u2026. It took me a long time to get over it. Maybe that\u2019s too corny, I don\u2019t know. But it is true. It took me a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t**<\/p>\n

\n\tPaper Tiger\u00a0premieres May 16 at the\u00a0Cannes Film Festival. Stay tuned for more\u00a0Cannes 2026<\/a>\u00a0first looks and exclusives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Gray was sure Scarlett Johansson would say no. \u201cI didn\u2019t think Scarlett Johansson had any interest in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486202,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[268],"tags":[27216,26253,212326,10404,190863,11519,434,18,117,19,17,80593,26465,42054,21008],"class_list":{"0":"post-486201","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-adam-driver","9":"tag-anne-hathaway","10":"tag-armageddon-time","11":"tag-cannes","12":"tag-cannes-2026","13":"tag-cannes-film-festival","14":"tag-celebrities","15":"tag-eire","16":"tag-entertainment","17":"tag-ie","18":"tag-ireland","19":"tag-james-gray","20":"tag-jeremy-strong","21":"tag-miles-teller","22":"tag-scarlett-johansson"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116579269012586963","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}