Scarlett Johansson Enjoyed The ‘Challenge’ Of Luc Besson’s ‘Lucy’


Scarlett Johansson isn’t afraid of tackling challenging roles. According to the actress, this is precisely why she signed on to star in director Luc Besson’s Lucy.

Although it’s easy to dismiss the movie as just another mindless action flick constructed by a filmmaker who enjoys watching women beats the cinematic crap out of bad guys, Johansson revealed that the flick was actually kind of difficult to wrap her head around. Since Besson is such a visual director, seeing the story through his eyes is definitely a challenge. Of course, she was more than willing to give it a shot.

During her recent interview with The Huffington Post, Scarlett Johnasson discussed why she decided to tackle the titular role in Lucy. The actress admits that she wasn’t too sure what the movie was all about when the director first pitched the idea.

Johansson told the website:

“[H]e really came with this passion for his project that he’s been developing for 10 years. I think he needed to meet with me to sort of describe the story and his vision for it because it’s pretty abstract. Even reading the eventual script, it was pretty sparse. It was accompanied by a huge visual dictionary of sorts that he had put together because I needed those references to know exactly what he was imagining.”

Scarlett continued:

“This project is a conceptual one, maybe even more so than some of his previous work, it’s really coming from his visual kind of world that he’s known for and that he lives in. I guess it was the challenge of the project itself that drew me into it. It was me having to put trust in Luc and him having, in turn, put trust in me. We had to weed each other into finding the core of the character and the story.”

According to the folks at Variety, Scarlett’s decision to join forces with Luc Besson certainly paid off in the long run. The website reports that Lucy stomped across the competition at the box office on Friday night, earning an impressive $17 million from North American moviegoers. This was enough cash to send Dwayne Johnson’s and director Brett Ratner’s Hercules screaming into second place.

Unless business seriously drops off on Saturday and Sunday, Johansson’s action flick could end up bringing home around $39 million during its first three days in theaters. Considering Universal Pictures coughed up $40 million to bring the movie to life, it’s safe to say the studio has a modest hit on its hands.

What did you think about Scarlett Johansson’s performance in Lucy? Do you believe the actress is quickly becoming Hollywood’s next female action hero?

[Image via Universal Pictures]

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