Sony Pictures Entertainment
Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum are talking about “Fly Me to the Moon,” a comedy-drama about a NASA launch director who teams up with a marketing executive to stage a fake moon landing.
“Extra’s” Tommy Didario spoke with Scarlett and Channing, who didn’t know much about each other before starring in the film.
“I think we met, but I only vaguely remember,” Scarlett said.
Speaking about the film Hail, Caesar!, in which they co-starred, Channing said, “She was in the middle of filming in a pool, trying to get through a day of filming a Coen brothers movie, which was very, very hard for both of us, and she really did her best in the water.”
“I was like, ‘Help me, pull me out, please!'” Scarlett said.
Despite not knowing each other, the pair made acting on screen seem so easy, with Scarlett joking, “Well, it was really hard because he’s really ugly. I was like, ‘Oh my God.'”
Channing joked, “We didn’t really see each other that much. I mean, we just ignored each other the whole time. It was hard.”
Channing got serious and said, “It was weird. It was really easy. We have very similar life experiences, we have kids, we’ve been through the same stages of life, we’ve been in the industry a long time, she has an older brother and I have a younger sister, we just hit it off. I just annoyed her as much as I could.”
Scarlett added, “That’s basically it. I was like, ‘Why?’ the whole time… Right before the take roll, I’m like, ‘Oh no! Someone’s…’ And then all of a sudden he appears, this big guy, and I’m like, ‘Why did he just disappear?’ It’s terrifying.”
They also talked about telling a fun, fantastical story that goes behind the scenes at NASA, set against the backdrop of a real, dramatic period in history.
“It’s a really fun movie, but it’s about a really important time in history, and people actually lost their lives,” Channing reflected. “People dedicated their whole lives to this program, so it’s not like this didn’t happen.”
“My character isn’t a real person, which is what makes this movie so fun, because we’re kind of doing revisionist history, depicting events that actually happened, but we don’t know what happened behind the scenes at NASA, and we get to tell this really fantastical, fun story in a very dramatic setting.”
Scarlett’s production company wrote the script, but she said she wasn’t originally scheduled to star in the film.
Of her role as Kelly, she said, “I never thought I’d end up in this movie, but when the script came, it was amazing. I loved the script. The tone is so fresh, original and funny. You don’t read scripts like this very often… It was moving, it was funny and it felt like a big idea… The character is perfectly written. I felt like it was written for me. I couldn’t imagine anyone else playing it. I’d be too jealous. So I thought, ‘This role has to be mine.'”
She continued, “Kelly is a survivor. She’s creative, she’s passionate, she has an incredible zest for life and she’s unstoppable. I love that about her. And she’s relentless.”
Scarlett noted that becoming an actor requires a similar determination: “As an actor, you’re basically selling yourself to directors, writers, ideas, studios,” she said, “because you’re looking for work, you’re looking for an opportunity to do something you love, and someone needs to give you that possibility.”
She laughed and said, “You’re always like, ‘Look at me! I can do this,’ even though you’re like, ‘I have no idea how to ride a horse or whatever it is.'”
Would they want to go into space if given the opportunity?
Channing responded, “Well, I think I would go unless there was a specific factor. I’m doing pretty well now so I think it’s pretty safe, but I’d like to go for a reason, not just because I want to ride.”
Scarlett commented, “I think I’m OK. I’m OK. I have other things I want to do. I don’t like small spaces and I feel like the whole environment causes me mild panic.”
“Fly Me to the Moon” will be released in theaters on July 12th.