By Michaela Gordoni
Watching Robert Redford direct THE HORSE WHISPERER at 13 inspired Marvel actress Scarlett Johansson to direct.
Johansson made her directorial debut in ELEANOR THE GREAT.
“When I was a kid, I was working with Bob Redford, and just observing him on the set,” Johansson said. “Just seeing his command of the set, blocking scenes, working with Bob Richardson, our director of photography, Joe Reidy, our assistant director, and just watching him in action, on his feet, doing that work.”
“Then he could switch over and have these very intimate conversations with me, where he would spend the time to recount all that had happened to my character up until that moment, and help me get to where I needed to go,” she recalled. “I mean, the fact that he could bounce back and forth like that to me seemed like a really interesting job.”
She thought she’d be a director once she was an adult, but that thought kept getting pushed away as her acting career soared.
“At some point I thought, ‘Who would ever want a job like that?’” she laughed. “You’re fixing all the problems and answering all the questions, and it feels so tedious, you know. It just seemed impossible to me, like a whole different brain.”
“I don’t think I could have done this job 15 years ago,” the star explained. “It’s all the experience that’s led me up to this point that made it possible. And also that I had the confidence to do it. It requires that confidence; otherwise, if the director’s not confident, everybody feels it on the set and it’s awful.”
ELEANOR THE GREAT is a comical drama about grief, friendship, family and the Holocaust. Eleanor, a 94-year-old, finds herself attending a Holocaust survivors’ group and tells one of friend’s stories, claiming it as her own, but things get out of hand.
Both Johansson and June Squibb, who plays Eleanor in the movie, felt drawn to the script.
“June was attached to star in it, so I was really interested in what June Squibb was excited to star in,” Johansson told East Bay Times. “And it was pretty apparent. Echoing what June is saying, I could tell when I read it that it was a real showcase for June’s talent, because the character is this sort of impossible person.”
“It was well written, and it was written for film, which is a certain thing,” Squibb said. “And it just told me so much right away about this woman, and who she was, what she felt, and how the playing of it, the being her for so many weeks, would be. I felt, Yes, this is something for me to do.”
Johansson balanced comical themes with anger and loss by fine-tuning the script.
There were “these really profound moments that could be quite surprising. You know, there’s a heaviness, of course, to the material, and so I think you have to balance it with levity,” she said.
Squibb said Johansson did a beautiful job directing.
She’s such a leader and she worked from the standpoint of the knowledge she had as an actor, which was great for me,” Squibb said. “It was just a wonderful experience. Everything was very easy.”
ELEANOR THE GREAT comes out Sept. 26.
Part of Movieguide®’s review reads: “Renowned actress Scarlett Johansson does a good job directing. June Squibb delivers a wonderful performance as Eleanor. Eventually, Eleanor finds a way to share her friend’s story with the world.
“ELEANOR THE GREAT also has uplifting scenes of family reconciliation. However, there’s some lying and foul language, and a politically correct moment when a college-age character says she’s quote gay unquote,” the review continues. “So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for older children.”
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