There’s no shortage of great actors who became great directors in Hollywood, and now Scarlett Johansson is in contention to perhaps join that list. The actress who played Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for more than a decade has made her directorial debut with Eleanor The Great, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last week. While it remains to be seen if the feature will be added to the 2025 movies calendar, it’s nice to read the sweet comment Johansson’s MCU co-star Robert Downey Jr said about when she was preparing to direct for the first time.
Downey and Johansson first worked together on Iron Man 2 and ultimately starred alongside each other in six MCU movies (all of which can be streamed with a Disney+ subscription). Here’s what this superhero franchise’s Tony Stark and soon-to-be Doctor Doom had to say about her outspokenness to Vanity Fair:
There’s a leadership quality inherent in everything she does.
Scarlett Johansson has been producing projects in Hollywood stretching back to the 2011 documentary The Whale (not to be confused with the same-named Brendan Fraser movie), but it’s kicked up in recent years with the Black Widow movie, Fly Me to the Moon and the recently-released Thunderbolts*. Robert Downey Jr. is clearly impressed with what she’s accomplished both on and off camera. It has me hopeful that one day these two can work together outside of the MCU, perhaps in something that the two of them would also executive produce.
Downey’s comment was included in a profile that also saw Johansson talking how the studios dropped the ball on releasing fellow MCU star Sebastian Stan’s The Apprentice and what was difficult about shooting her interrogation scene in The Avengers, among other topics. She also shared new thoughts on A.I. misuse following her statement in February decrying a video that used her likeness to advocate against Kanye West‘s antisemitic sentiments.
While fans of the actress will have to wait for an undetermined amount of time to see how she does as a director, the good news is that we’ll be seeing plenty of her on the big screen in the coming weeks. Johansson is among the many actors in the ensemble cast of The Phoenician Scheme, which opens in theaters this weekend. Then she’ll be back as the lead actress in Jurassic World Rebirth, which comes out on July 2.
As for Eleanor The Great, the movie stars June Squibb as a 94-year-old from Florida who forges an unlikely friendship with a 19-year-old in New York City. Squibb said she was “amazed at how open” Scarlett Johansson was directing her, so I’m looking forward to seeing how the final product turned out when it’s released to the public.
