Scarlett Johansson Speaks

The 'Lost in Translation' star tells John O'Connell that she is soon to act opposite Tom Cruise, and that filming will begin in September.

Dec 23 2004

Scarlett Johansson may well be the busiest woman in showbiz. The luminous New Yorker starred in two of the year's most critically acclaimed movies ('Lost in Translation' and 'Girl With a Pearl Earring'), toured the world promoting them, became the face of Calvin Klein's new fragrance, and somehow found time to work on a further three high profile productions ('In Good Company' opposite Dennis Quaid, the as-yet-untitled new Woody Allen film, and an update of Oscar Wilde's 'Lady Windermere's Fan' entitled 'A Good Woman').

However, when talking exclusively to Time Out, it was a 2005 project that really got the actress excited, namely 'Mission Impossible III'.

It seems the much-delayed Tom Cruise-starring sequel will finally go into production in the autumn of next year, with 'Alias' creator JJ Abrams at the helm.

'It's been postponed till September while it's rewritten', Johannson explained, 'but I'm doing weapons training for it!'

'Just pulling a trigger is easy enough, but when you're loading your magazine and you have a machine gun and a handgun and a shotgun, and you're trying to figure out how to use them all… I'm being trained by someone who was in the special forces, so I get to know interesting stuff, like how they train the Iraqi army.'

Rather than playing the shrinking violet, or dull love interest then, it seems the young actress will indeed be firing guns, and lots of them from the sound of it.

Before that however, Johansson has to finish work on Michael Bay's 'The Island', opposite Ewan McGregor, and 'The Black Dahlia' a Brian De Palma directed adaptation of James Ellroy's brilliant crime novel.

All of which suggests that no matter how big a year 2004 was for the young actress, 2005 is all set to eclipse it in every way, shape and form.

John O'Connell's full interview with Scarlett Johansson appears in Time Out London December 21 2004 – January 5 2005. No. 1792/1793.