At the innocent age of just 17, when girls are busy finding and reinventing themselves, Scarlett Johansson was trying to navigate her way through the fetters of being hypers*xualized as a young actress. Although the Black Widow star would eventually become comfortable in her own skin, there have only been a handful of occasions when she has deemed it necessary to strip in front of the camera. And as it turns out, one of those times (which happens to be fairly recent) when ScarJo did go nude for a film, ended up going awry. Well, for the director at least.

Scarlett Johansson

Scarlett Johansson’s Nudity Made Wes Anderson Squeamish

Lauded for his eccentric visuals and vibrant, aesthetically pleasing narratives against a backdrop of relatively darker themes, Wes Anderson easily makes up for one of the most unique filmmakers in Hollywood. In fact, his latest project with Scarlett Johansson and Jason Schwartzman which opened for a limited theatrical release seems to have enjoyed a great run, garnering beaming reviews from critics and marking a box office milestone for the director. But it looks like the behind-the-scenes of the movie weren’t nearly as delightful for Anderson, even if had been transient.

In one of her rare, albeit brief nude scenes, Johansson, 38, who tailored her role after Bette Davis in the film, revealed how Anderson, 54, was practically squirming with discomfort while filming the sequence. Meanwhile, the award-winning actress didn’t even break a sweat during the shot, excluding the occasional air of awkwardness that would bubble up following Anderson’s “specific instructions.”

Scarlett Johansson as Midge Campbell
“Wes is probably the worst person to talk to about anything like that. He’s so uncomfortable around that topic. So, I’ll leave it up to your imagination [how that went]. There was a lot of throat clearing and [Wes] sort of hiding his face.”
That being said, Asteroid City is one of the few films that Johansson agreed to go nude for besides 2013’s Under the Skin and 2017’s Ghost in the Shell.

ScarJo’s Shocking Salary for Asteroid City

The Lucy star has made Forbes’ world’s highest-paid actresses list on more than one occasion with around $56 million in pretax earnings from 2018-19. And while most of her profit can be ascribed to her famous role as Marvel’s Black Widow, Johansson seems to have accrued fairly handsome wages for her non-MCU outings as well. Perhaps that is why her salary for Anderson’s latest venture seems to be in such a stark contrast.

Asteroid City (2023)

For Asteroid City, Johansson told Variety [as per Marca] that she made $4,000 a week which approximates to roughly $36,000, a rather surprising figure for an actress of her caliber to have earned. But then again, she had a relatively minimal role in the movie, the runtime of which went just shy of a hundred minutes. Not to mention, much like Anderson’s other projects, this one too, was a low-budget film with production costs totaling merely $25 million. Yup, that ought to explain it.

Asteroid City is currently playing in cinemas.

Source: Yahoo! Entertainment