Scarlett Johansson has recalled working with Bill Murray on the 2003 rom-com Lost In Translation.
The two co-starred in Sofia Coppola’s Oscar-winning film about a fading movie star (Murray), who meets and forms a meaningful bond with a conflicted newlywed (Johansson) in Tokyo.
Johansson was 17 at the time, starring opposite a then-57-year-old Murray, who she remembered was “in a hard place.”
“Everybody was on tenterhooks around him, including our director and the full crew, because he was dealing with his… stuff,” she told Vanity Fair in a new cover story.
Without going into further detail, Johansson admitted that she had never worked with an actor in that kind of “headspace” before.
The Black Widow star, 40, recounted reuniting with Murray, 74, in February for Saturday Night Live’s 50th Special Anniversary, where she said he interacted kindly with others on set.
“He’s such a different person now,” Johansson said. “I think life has humbled him.”
Asked if she was referring to the recent inappropriate misconduct allegations Murray faced on the set of Aziz Ansari’s directorial debut, Johansson said: “Certainly, yes — that was really bad.
“But I also know COVID was a hard thing for him,” she added. “Life — all these things have led up to him being held accountable for that kind of behavior. But you know what? How wonderful that people can change.”
In 2022, a female crew member filed a complaint against the Ghostbusters star, accusing him of straddling and kissing her through a mask. The allegations prompted an internal investigation and ultimately led to the movie’s indefinite suspension.
At the time, Murray described the incident as a “difference in opinion,” saying that he had done “something I thought was funny and it wasn’t taken that way.”
He additionally shed light on the controversy last month, explaining: “Someone that I worked with, that I had had lunch with on various days of the week — it was Covid, we were all wearing masks, and we were all stranded in this one room listening to this crazy scene. I dunno what prompted me to do it.
“It’s something that I had done to someone else before, and I thought it was funny, and every time it happened, it was funny,” he claimed. “I was wearing a mask, and I gave her a kiss, and she was wearing a mask. It wasn’t like I touched her, but it was just, I gave her a kiss through a mask. And she wasn’t a stranger.”
