Scarlett Johansson Recalls Filming Black Widow’s Interrogation Scene From The Avengers, And I’m Surprised By What She Found Most ‘Difficult’

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Each Marvel Cinematic Universe character possesses at least one pivotal moment that encapsulates their essence. For Scarlett Johansson‘s Black Widow, this defining moment could be her debut in The Avengers, where she’s bound to a chair but delivers an outstanding action sequence, arguably the most memorable in the film. Surprisingly, the most challenging aspect of this scene for Johansson wasn’t the physicality, it was mastering the dialogue.

Reflecting on the scene with Vanity Fair, Johansson credits her stunt double, Heidi Moneymaker, for most of the impressive actions in that particular moment. Due to the limitations imposed by the scene – being bound to a chair – the actress admits she was unable to perform many of the necessary stunts herself. She elaborated…

Due to being restrained in a chair during much of the fight, I found it quite challenging to execute my moves effectively. Fortunately, I have an exceptional stunt double in Heidi Moneymaker, who has been by my side since Iron Man 2, when I was around 23 or 24 years old. Over the past decade, we’ve collaborated closely to develop Black Widow’s unique fighting style, movements, and other signature elements together.

When it comes to stunt people, they’re usually meant to stay unseen. However, as Johasson highlights, even subtle actions could betray the truth. Therefore, the actor and the stunt performer need to collaborate closely to bring the character to life.

Scarlett Johansson participates in some action sequences herself, but relies heavily on a skilled stunt team for the more risky maneuvers. Unlike Tom Cruise who performs all his own stunts, ScarJo isn’t always the one we see on camera during action scenes. However, there are moments where it’s undeniably her. She collaborated with her stunt team to determine which aspects of fight scenes she would handle, and how seamlessly they could merge her performance with that of her stunt double in the final sequence. Scarlett then elaborated…

Most likely, a significant part of this chair sequence involves an intricate collaboration between our team’s previsualization (previz) and the stunt performers. We’ll determine which actions can be realistically performed by us and which ones are best suited to the stunt performer. Essentially, it’s a blending of our abilities and their expertise that brings this sequence to life.

It appears this entire sequence was quite intricate to assemble. One might imagine that battling while restrained would be an unusual predicament, even for an experienced stunt performer. However, Scarlett Johansson shared that the most challenging aspect of the whole scene wasn’t the stunts, but rather learning a few lines in Russian. She mentioned…

I clearly recall finding it extremely hard to grasp just about four-and-a-half seconds of Russian, and that seemed tougher for me compared to a physical stunt, if you get my drift. It felt like a mental acrobatics act. To be honest, I was more anxious about the Russian language than I ever was about a chair.

It’s no walk in the park to attempt mastering just a few phrases in a foreign tongue while making them sound as if you’re fluent in it, since this can be quite challenging.

Scarlett Johansson has parted ways with the Marvel Cinematic Universe for now, but there’s still hope that she might reappear in a fresh character, similar to Robert Downey Jr.’s comeback. However, we can always cherish these memorable scenes featuring her as Black Widow.

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2025-05-19 23:37