Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson Have Impressive On-Screen Chemistry — Here’s Why
Movie fans have experienced the chemistry between Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson primarily through their work in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, their on-screen partnership goes back before Captain America and Black Widow.
The two actors have something else in common. They’ve closed out their time with the MCU as far as film production goes, and both went on to very strong post-Avengers credits, proving that while Marvel has dominated their careers, it doesn’t define them.
Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson go way back
Many viewers first saw Chris Evans when he played the Human Torch in Fox’s two Fantastic Four movies, while viewers first met Johansson when she was still a child. One of her first credits was the movie The Horse Whisperer, directed by her future Captain America: The Winter Soldier co-star Robert Redford.
A meme has circulated of a photo of Redford and Johansson from that shoot, with Redford inviting Johansson to join Hydra.
As noted by The Blast, The two first starred in the 2004 movie The Perfect Score, about a group of students conspiring to steal the answers to the SAT. That movie didn’t make much of an impression on audiences, but the part acted together again in the 2007 movie The Nanny Diaries.
Johansson told the Los Angeles Times, “It’s nice for Chris and I to get to do dramatic work together. We work well together, I think, and admire one another as actors, and we’re used to being able to throw the ball back and forth because we’ve done that in the past in other films that we’ve done. We’re also older actors now and more comfortable taking our time. You can wait for the emotion to come and let the moment happen.”
How do Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson look back on their work?
In addition to experiencing the rigors of the MCU together, both made the most of a post-Avengers landscape. After years of being passed over by the Oscars, Johansson scored two nominations this year for the movies Marriage Story and Jojo Rabbit.
Meanwhile, Evans not only starred in the hit murder mystery Knives Out but created a sensation with the sweater he wears throughout the film.
Evans and Johansson work so well together that Variety paired them for an Actors on Actors interview last year. The two had this exchange about their early days:
“Johansson: I’m trying to remember (when we met). It must have been on the set of “The Perfect Score” at some point in our rehearsal. We had a very at the time in-the-moment teen comedy, that actually now is somehow maybe relevant — about an SAT scandal.
Evans: It was almost 20 years ago.
Johansson: Yeah, it feels like a long time ago. We were just children then.
Evans: I think we all went out one night, and you couldn’t get in the club.
Johansson: Because I was 17. Yup, those were the days … It was so nice to work with you, because I felt we had great chemistry as actors, and there was a naturalistic approach that I felt.”
What work have Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson done since ‘Avengers: Endgame?’
Obviously, Johansson has Black Widow next because that was supposed to have been out for seven months by now. Fans have lamented for years that it was taking forever to get a Black Widow movie off the ground, and when Marvel finally did make it, the pandemic upset the studio’s entire slate. It’s expected to come out next May, a year after its original date.
As for Evans, he told Variety, “Every couple of months, I decide I’m done acting. This has been my thing for decades now. I’m always looking for a way out, but I do love it. I think TV right now, those creative minds are given a bit more freedom.”
That was likely a factor in his appearing in the Apple TV+ drama Defending Jacob, about a prosecutor dealing with his son being charged with murder.
