Scarlett Johansson is a tough cookie who doesn’t trade on her beauty, says Léon director Luc Besson

 
Tough girl: Scarlett Johansson in thriller Lucy (Picture: Jessica Forde)
Jessica Forde
The Weekender

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Scarlett Johansson is “one tough cookie” who “acts like a man” in her total disregard of her looks, according to the director of her latest thriller.

Luc Besson, 55, the man behind The Fifth Element, Subway and Léon: The Professional, also hailed the actress’s quick intelligence and said it made her ideal for the part of Lucy, a student who finds her brain power unlocked to a superhuman degree by a powerful chemical.

He said: “Scarlett loved the subject right away. She had hundreds of questions. And she wanted the challenge. She is a tough cookie and a hard worker.” He also said she does not deliberately “seduce” the camera, explaining: “She is incredibly photogenic. You can honestly do whatever you want with the camera and she is totally gorgeous.

Stunning: Scarlett Johansson (Picture: Getty)

“But what is amazing about her is she absolutely never plays with that. Scarlett doesn’t care. It’s about the part. She is very sweet. She is almost acting like a totally tough man. The beauty just comes by itself. I can see it through the lens and I can use it but she doesn’t play with it at all.”

The Frenchman first began thinking about the film a decade ago, and said he was fascinated with the idea of expanding the brain’s capacity.

Famous fan: director Luc Besson is full of praise for Scarlett Johansson

He also claimed there were elements of real science underpinning the film, saying: “We just simplify things to find a cinematic version.” The theory that we only use 10 per cent of our brain is “totally obsolete”, he said, but it was correct that only 15 per cent of neurons are in use at any one time.

Showing a woman going beyond anything anyone had ever experienced was difficult and produced some panic in 29-year-old Johansson, he said. “She had to invent a way of moving, the tone of her voice,” he explained. “It’s really like she’s coming from another world.”

The director, who co-founded a Parisian institute dedicated to brain and spinal cord research, talked to experts for the film. The audience should concentrate, he added. “There’s some information at the beginning which is very useful at the end. You can’t just lie back and eat your popcorn.”

Johansson is expecting her first child with her fiancé, French journalist Romain Dauriac. They are rumoured to be marrying this month.

Lucy is released on August 22

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