Scarlett Johansson, star of the upcoming film He’s Just Not That Into You, is happy to reveal what she loves about Canadians and what makes a great relationship. Just don’t push her for details of her own.
Scarlett Johansson has traded in her signature blond locks for a more subtle shade of brown. Did she make the change for a movie role? Or is the privacy-minded, 24-year-old actress and newlywed (she married Canada’s Ryan Reynolds in the fall) attempting to go unnoticed? “It’s part of being a girl,” Johansson says with a shrug. “We get to change up our thing and confuse everybody.” She certainly befuddles a couple of men in the new ensemble film He’s Just Not That Into You. And she has been doing an excellent job of keeping paparazzi and nosy tabloid reporters off her trail since marrying Reynolds, 32, at a remote spot on Vancouver Island in September. No photos or details of the wedding at the Clayoquot Wilderness Resort near Tofino have made the media – a marvel of covert planning on Johansson’s part in this intrusive age. “I’m such a private person in that sense,” she says unapologetically. “I’m never going to answer any wedding questions.” She will, however, gush about everything else the West Coast has to offer. “British Columbia has all of those beautiful, protected forests – endowments, I guess they’re called – that everybody can enjoy,” Johansson marvels. “And Vancouver is a great city. It’s a late-night city, which I love, coming from New York. And it’s very welcoming. There are all different kinds of people, you feel like you’re in a sort of hub.” He’s Just Not That Into You, which opens Friday, is a multistory romantic dramedy that was inspired by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo’s snarky self-help book of the same title. As in her recent films, Vicky Cristina Bracelona and The Spirit, Johansson is happy to share the spotlight with multiple co-stars, among them Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Aniston, Ben Affleck, Ginnifer Goodwin and Justin Long. She plays an independent young woman named Anna who is strongly attracted to a conflicted married man (Bradley Cooper) while keeping an ardent, slightly more than a friend (Kevin Connolly) simultaneously at arm’s length and within reach. But don’t think of Anna as either a home wrecker or a tease. Scarlett didn’t, and she played her empathetically enough to undercut any judgments. “She’s sort of angry with herself that she was blind to such an obviously messy situation,” Johansson says. “And she does really try with Kevin’s character. I didn’t want people to hate her because of how she deals with him, particularly. I didn’t want it to seem like she was just a user. I think that she genuinely is a free-spirited kind of person.” In its light way, He’s Just Not That Into You strives to make women examine their beliefs and delusions about relationships. Whether it works that way for viewers or not, the film certainly had that effect on the cast. “You can’t be practical about love,” Johansson asserts. “This isn’t just from my own experience, but also from what I see my friends dealing with. It’s not about how on the page everything looks great. Just that phrase ‘This relationship should work’ is such a kiss of death, y’know? “Sometimes it seems like things should work out. This person is handsome, successful, charming, all of these things. But if you don’t really have a partnership with somebody, if you’re not their best friend and their lover and their partner and supporter, and almost a mirror for them, it’s a cause for concern in my book.” So she has all of those things with Reynolds? “I sure hope so!” she says, laughing. She laughs even harder when asked what the most Canadian thing is about her Vancouver-born husband, who most recently played a loveable single dad in the romantic comedy Definitely, Maybe. “The most Canadian thing? Isn’t it just the fact that he’s Canadian? I’ll say his Canadian passport. And I think everybody enjoys his sense of humour. That’s why he’s such a good comedic actor. “I’ve shot in Vancouver and been to the Toronto Film Festival,” Johansson notes. “Most every Canadian I’ve ever met and worked with has a really wicked sense of humour. They sort of wink at life, and I like that. That’s why I like to visit, and as close to home as it is, there’s sort of a European sensibility about the place.” Born and raised in New York, Johansson claims to have been an irrepressible hambone from an early age. She first appeared on stage at the age of 8, got her first substantial film role in The Horse Whisperer four years later and broke out as a marquee name at 17 with Lost in Translation. She has worked at a furious pace since then, averaging about three films per year over the past five years, not to mention doing a good deal of high-end spokes-modelling for companies such as L’Oreal and Dolce & Gabbana, volunteering for charities as well as Barack Obama’s campaign, and even recording an album of Tom Waits songs. She also squeezed in a few high-profile romances, including one with actor Josh Hartnett, before she first hooked up with Reynolds in 2007. Characteristically, she kept details remarkably quiet for such a hot young star – but she believes that talking about deeply personal stuff can be a good and necessary thing, in the right setting. “Of course, my friends and I always talk about relationships,” she acknowledges. “And I always probably overanalyze everything. But if this person is making you crazy, if this person is making you doubt yourself, go get rid of him; I always come back to that. “When I talk to friends who have been with their husbands or boyfriends for a long period … long relationships have their own lives and go through different cycles – sometimes it’s nice just to vent. … Sometimes you need an outside perspective; relationships can get sheltered and kind of fester if you don’t.”