Laughing out loud
Scarlett Johansson tells of being drawn to a dark comedy
SCARLETT Johansson swaps superheroes for girlfriends in her new film Rough Night.
The Avengers star plays bride-to-be Jess, who reunites with her college friends for her bachelorette party. But when the male stripper (Aussie actor Ryan Cooper) they hired winds up dead, a night of celebration turns into a nightmare.
Q: Did the script make you laugh when you first read it?
A: It did. I remember I was at the beach and I was lying on the couch resting (laughs). My daughter was pretty young at the time and I was about to start something and I had one week where I was going to try and take it easy before I headed into it. I think it was Ghost in the Shell. And I wasn’t even looking to get anything but my agent called me and he said “the guys that do Broad City wrote this script.’’ And as soon as he said Broad City I was excited about it and I wanted to read it because I think Broad City is so great. And I remember reading it on the couch and literally laughing out loud. I thought it was so funny. It was thrilling and it’s crazy to get stuff like that and it makes you feel like ‘there is original content out there.’ It’s inspiring.
Q: It’s co-written and directed by a woman and the leads are all women. Could that have happened 15, 20 years ago?
A: You know, I think the element that is unusual here is not that it never happens but the rare thing here is that we have a female director directing this piece. Unfortunately that’s not common. I think that women in comedy have been celebrated more recently and it feels like women are finally getting their due. They are certainly there. I think probably behind every great male comic there is a whole bunch of female comediennes that are in the writers’ room coming up with all the jokes. I know that from working with Saturday Night Live, I know that from seeing different writers’ circles, and it’s about time that the limelight was shared in this way. And it’s great and I feel like that is a wonderful extra element to the whole thing.
Q: It’s MA-rated humour – there are references to drugs and sex – but is it your kind of humour?
A: It’s totally my kind of humour. Lucia pushes everything to the almost unforgivable and then it’s just a process of paring it back. And that’s the great thing about doing comedy and
working with such incredibly talented comedic actors and writers, like Kate McKinnon (Pippa) and Jillian Bell (Alice) and Ilana Glazer (Frankie), those girls all write all their own stuff and they are so sharp and in the moment. Watching them is like watching Olympic athletes do their stuff. It’s such a pleasure seeing them perform and you want to be on set all the time just to watch everybody’s coverage just to see what they were going to come up with. I remember working with Jillian Bell and I kept going ‘you bastard! I can’t keep a straight face..’ The things that were coming out of her mouth were just outrageous. I was laughing so much because these girls are just hilarious.
Q: Have you ever been on one of those kinds of bachelorette parties?
A: You know, I’ve had my own version of those crazy girls’ nights (laughs). My favourite times are girls’ trips – when the girls get together and have a destination trip and get to go out and dance and get crazy some nights and have your hangover brunch (laughs). Those times when you relax, gossip, inspire one another, read together, that stuff is great and those are the best times and I am long overdue a trip like that (laughs).
Q: You said that you rarely get sent comedy. Would you like to do more comedy in the future?
A: I would love to do more comedy. I also loved working with Lucia and Paul (Downs, the co-writer). I would love to be able to continue to collaborate with them on stuff and we talked about doing other things together. I hope that Rough Night does so well that all of us can get together for another one.
Rough Night is in cinemas now.