Scarlett Johansson confessed that premiering her first movie as a director at the Cannes Film Festival this month “makes me nervous, but I’m excited as well”
Johansson directed June Squibb, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Jessica Hecht in an independent drama titled Eleanor the Great
“To have it actually become a reality is amazing. I’m still processing it,” she said of the movie’s upcoming world premiere
Scarlett Johansson will embark on a new chapter when she debuts her first feature-length effort as a director at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival.
“Premiering in Cannes, I don’t know how I will be able to process the hugeness of it. It makes me nervous, but I’m excited as well,” Johansson, 40, told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview published Wednesday, May 7. “I’m very proud of it and proud of all the work everybody did to make it.”
The two-time Oscar nominee and frequent blockbuster star is trying her hand behind the camera with Eleanor the Great, which stars June Squibb as a 94-year-old who relocates from Florida to New York City to live with her daughter and grandson after experiencing a loss, according to THR’s description of the movie. Chiwetel Ejiofor and Jessica Hecht also star in the film.
Johansson also cited her 10-year-old daughter Rose Dorothy, whom she shares with ex Romain Dauriac, as her inspiration for describing a mixture of nervous feelings and excitement regarding Eleanor the Great‘s premiere as “nerve-citement.” (The actress and first-time director also shares son Cosmo, 3, with husband Colin Jost.)
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Scarlett Johansson on April 2, 2025
Johansson shared that she daydreamed of watching Squibb strut the red carpet in Cannes while filming Eleanor the Great last year, which the actress-turned-filmmaker also described as a “humongous scramble” to put together.
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“I said to [one of my producing partners, Jonathan Lia], ‘If I do my job well and do what I’m supposed to do, I can imagine June walking the Croisette at age 95, starring in this incredible dramatic role that she’s so amazing in’ and I thought that would be my dream,” Johansson said. “To have it actually become a reality is amazing. I’m still processing it.”
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Scarlett Johansson on March 2, 2025
Johansson is not the only high profile actor unveiling their first movie as a director at Cannes this year. Harris Dickinson (Babygirl, The Iron Claw) is debuting a movie he wrote himself titled Urchin. Other exciting premieres at Cannes this year include Emma Stone, Joaquin Phoenix and Austin Butler’s Eddington, Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme (which Johansson acts in), Denzel Washington and Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest and Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, the latter of which will screen at Cannes on May 14.
Johansson last appeared on the big screen in 2024’s Fly Me to the Moon; she also voiced a character in last year’s animated film Transformers One. Following Eleanor the Great‘s world premiere, Johansson will return to blockbusters with Jurassic World Rebirth, which releases in theaters July 2
The Cannes Film Festival will run from May 13 to May 24.
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