{"id":2005304,"date":"2025-09-08T03:25:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T03:25:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2005304"},"modified":"2025-09-08T03:25:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T03:25:15","slug":"scarlett-johansson-reflects-on-stressful-start-to-directorial-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/scarlett-johansson-reflects-on-stressful-start-to-directorial-debut\/","title":{"rendered":"Scarlett Johansson Reflects on Stressful Start to Directorial Debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Sep 7, 2025 6:53 PM EDT<\/p>\n

Scarlett Johansson<\/a> is sitting on the director\u2019s chair, and she\u2019s not shy about admitting her first day wasn\u2019t easy.<\/p>\n

The Oscar-nominated actress made her directorial debut<\/a> recently for the film Eleanor the Great, which follows Eleanor Morgenstein (June Squibb), a 94-year-old Floridian woman who recently moved to New York City after her best friend<\/a> died. The plot is actually based on the true story of screenwriter Tory Kamen\u2019s late grandmother<\/a>, who moved to Manhattan at age 95 after the death of her best friend. While inspired by a real person, the script is a fictional work. <\/p>\n

The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, and Johansson and the cast of Eleanor the Great sat down with the Los Angeles Times<\/a> on Sunday to talk about the movie. The 40-year-old actress and director admitted how stressful and \u201cchallenging\u201d the first day on set for Eleanor the Great actually was. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe were outside in Coney Island. It was cold. The crew hadn\u2019t had the time to bond or anything like that. We certainly didn\u2019t have enough time to figure out what we were doing. It\u2019s hard to do that when you\u2019re outside and there\u2019s the general public,\u201d Johansson explained. \u201cIt was a little bit hectic. Technically, a challenging day.\u201d<\/p>\n

After explaining the story, the Black Widow star turned to the cast to apologize and explained that she \u201cdidn\u2019t mean for it to end up like that,\u201d while the cast laughed it off. \u201cIt bonded us. We were trauma bonding,\u201d Johansson said with a smile<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Squibb, the star of the film, admitted that it was fun filming in Coney Island and Johansson added they got candy apples<\/a> afterwards.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Erin Kellyman, who plays Nina in the film, said that \u201cthis is what makes Scarlett a brilliant director, because I had a great time. I had no idea it was stress. I was just having fun.\u201d <\/p>\n

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\u201cEverything was great. Never mind what I just said,\u201d Johansson joked and laughed with the cast and crew. \u201cI take my apology back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eleanor the Great will be out in limited theaters around the United States and Canada on September 26. <\/p>\n

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About the Author<\/p>\n

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Liz Lindain<\/h2>\n

Entertainment Journalist, Parade Magazine<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Liz Lindain covers entertainment and pop culture for Parade Magazine. She holds a bachelor’s degree in media studies & communications from New York University and has years of experience covering the arts, contributing hundreds of stories across various outlets. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n