An uncomfortable moment. Scarlett Johansson recalled her costar Joaquin Phoenix’s reaction to her “bizarre” orgasm scene in their 2013 film Her.
“We tried to get through one take, and he was, like, losing it. He left the studio. He needed a break,” Johansson, 37, revealed during a Monday, October 10, appearance on Dax Shepard’s “Armchair Expert” podcast.
The Marriage Story star called the phone sex scene between her and Phoenix, 47, “gross,” adding, “You definitely don’t want to hear what you sound like having an orgasm. You definitely don’t want to hear what you sound like having a fake orgasm — ew.”
The Avengers actress was brought onto the Spike Jonze movie late in the production process, after filming had already wrapped.
“I didn’t know whether what I brought to it would work for him because he’d already shot the film and had to fit whatever it was that we did into what he’d already shot,” she said during a September 2013 conversation with Darren Aronofsky for Interview magazine.
She continued: “I saw a couple of his takes with Joaquin and did a little bit of work there. But what I thought was going to be four days of recording turned into a really involved process. At times, I would even record with Joaquin, who really made himself available in an amazing way.”
Johansson’s role of Samantha, an artificially intelligent virtual assistant, was originally portrayed by Samantha Morton.
“Samantha was with us on set and was amazing. It was only in post-production, when we started editing, that we realized that what the character/movie needed was different from what Samantha and I had created together,” Jonze, 52, told Vulture in June 2013. “So, we recast.”
Phoenix enjoyed working with both voice actresses for different reasons. “[With Samantha,] we really developed our characters together in a way, and with Scarlett, I worked with her just in the studio, so it’s just completely different experiences,” he said during a January 2014 appearance on NPR’s Fresh Air.
He continued: “You know, I had such an amazing time working with Samantha Morton and I feel so beholden to her for helping me develop this character. And then I worked with Scarlett, and she was incredible too, and I found something new about the relationship and we had new discoveries. It was an extraordinary process.”
Morton, 45, for her part, told Vanity Fair in July 2019 that being recast felt as if she had “created a painting and then put it in the attic, and nobody’s seen it.”
