Scarlett Johansson has opened up about an awkward incident while filming, which caused Joaquin Phoenix to leave the studio.
Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson starred together in Her. Credit: Stefania D’Alessandro/WireImage/Getty Images
Filming love scenes can be one of the most difficult parts of an actor’s job, because while they may appear intimate on-screen, the reality is anything but.
From being surrounded by a crew watching your every move to having to wear modesty patches over the crucial areas, sex scenes can be pretty unsexy behind the cameras.
Scarlett, 40, has opened up on one such scene that was so “bizarre” that Joaquin, 50, ended up leaving the set.
Speaking to hosts Dax Shepard and Monica Padman on the Armchair Expert podcast in 2022, Scarlett opened up about the sex scene the pair filmed on the 2013 movie Her.
Scarlett Johansson opened up about the awkward experience. Credit: Karwai Tang/WireImage/Getty Images
She and Joaquin had starred in the Spike Jonze-directed sci-fi romance movie, which is set in a near-future LA, as a lonely divorced man who falls for his AI assistant.
Scarlett only appears in the movie as the voice of the character, but the film does include a steamy phone sex session between her character Samantha and Joaquin’s character Theodore.
She revealed on the podcast that Joaquin had already filmed his part of the scene but as Scarlett’s part only featured her voice, he would need to join her in the recording studio while she recorded hers.
She explained: “Joaquin comes in, we try to get through one take, and he was, like, losing it.
“He was like, angry … He had already done [the scene], he had done it in person, and now he was with me, in this weird theater, I’m in this box and [Joaquin] is staring at me, the lights are low, and like, Spike is there. It was so bizarre.
“Joaquin was so upset about it, he left the studio. He needed a break.”
Scarlett revealed that she understood his feelings as looking back on the experience gives her “panic” too.
“You don’t want to hear your voice, ever,” she revealed. “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. It’s so gross.”
Yeah, that does sound pretty uncomfortable, to be fair.
Despite the filming of that scene being pretty painful, the movie did well overall, having a Rotten Tomatoes score of 95 percent.
