Why Scarlett Johansson's Newest Role Proved To Be One Of Her Most Challenging Yet

EXCLUSIVE: The newest Scarlett Johansson movie presented new challenges for the prolific star.

Johansson is a two-time Academy Award nominee, having been recognized for her performances in Jojo Rabbit and Marriage Story. Along with these accolades, she has the second-highest box office of all time for any actor at $15.6 billion, with the many Marvel Cinematic Universe movies featuring her as Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff being key contributors to that total, in addition to 2016's Jungle Book, Jurassic World Rebirth, Sing, and Sing 2.

In an interview with ScreenRant's Tatiana Hullender for Ray Gunn, Johansson was asked about the experience of voicing pop star Venus Nova, who has many different sides to her, in the new animated movie. The Marriage Story star explained that one of the challenges was that there were sometimes months between voice recording sessions, making it difficult to pick up where she left off while playing the complex character created by director and writer Brad Bird. Check out Johansson and Bird's comments below:

Scarlett Johansson: It's a bit of a journey because when you're doing voice recording, it's over a long period of time. It could be months, actually, before I hear from Brad that he needs me again. And when you come back to it, you may have a different perspective on it, or he may have a new perspective on some version of it because he's trying out stuff, like, "Actually, this is better when it's more playful. We had done it in a more sarcastic way, but it's reading as mean, so let's try this." You get a long time to live in it, and you get better at it too.

The character is very complex, and there's so much to her. We find her in a moment of deep personal crisis. That's when we're introduced to her, and she goes on this very moving journey of self-discovery throughout the film, and self-realization. One thing I will say is challenging about coming back to it is that you have to remember, "Where was I?" I would sometimes ask, "Can you play me what I recorded before?" You have to remember where your voice was at.

Brad Bird: Because it's different sides of the character, and the different sides sound different.

Since Venus is a pop star, Johansson not only had to voice the many different sides of the character, but also sing them too. She was asked whether this was different or more challenging from her previous musical experience, which include the movies Sing, Sing 2, and The Jungle Book.

Scarlett Johansson: It was hard. We had a finite amount of time to do it, and we had a lot of work to do. When we meet her, the character starts out churning out these bubblegum, earworm pop and dance hits, and it very much felt like she was just servicing the audience.

Brad Bird: And yet you can't stop thinking about them!

Scarlett Johansson: Yeah, they were stuck in my head forever! But then she's singing a real confession of her true feelings and her desires, and she's finally singing from her truest self. I luckily had Kimbra there to help me find all of that stuff, because she's obviously a brilliant musical mind, and a very sensitive artist, so she understood all of that. Actually, this character is a collaboration of us; we were working on it together, and her own empathy for the character's situation is all baked into it.

Ray Gunn takes place in an alternate future, in the city of Metropia, where Venus is implicated in a murder, with the accusation threatening to destroy her career. Sam Rockwell voices the titular character, a private investigator hired by Venus' husband, Arnold (Bobby Cannavale), to spy on her, which becomes more complicated as he develops romantic feelings for the pop star. Other key characters are Ray's alien detective partner, Eye-ra (Tom Waits), and alien mob boss Francis "Slugsy" Xavier (Matt Berry).

While Bird is best known for directing and writing Pixar movies like The Incredibles, Ratatouille, and Incredibles 2, he has had the idea for Ray Gunn since the 1990s, and it was inspired by noir films such as The Maltese Falcon, Chinatown, and The Big Lebowski.

The movie was produced by Skydance Animation and will be distributed by Netflix, beginning with a limited theatrical release (including on 70mm screens) on December 4 before coming to the streaming platform on December 18. Bird directed the new film, developed the story, co-wrote the screenplay with Matthew Robbins, and was one of the producers.

Rearrange the movies into the correct US release order.

After premiering at the London Film Festival, reviews for Ray Gunn have been overwhelmingly positive, leading to a "Certified Fresh" 94% critics' score based on 54 reviews as of this writing. ScreenRant's Ben Gibbons writes that the movie "builds a fascinating world, with deeply thought-provoking themes and intriguing characters."

Outside of Ray Gunn, other Scarlett Johansson movies on the way are James Gray's Paper Tiger, Mike Flanagan's The Exorcist: Martyrs, Matt Reeves' The Batman: Part II, and Ari Aster's Scapegoat. She is playing a homicide detective named Julie Miller in the next installment of The Exorcist franchise, but her roles in The Batman: Part II and Scapegoat remain under wraps.

Ray Gunn releases in theaters on December 4 and on Netflix on December 18.