Scarlett Johansson Rejects Backer Demand to Remove Holocaust from Directorial Debut

Scarlett Johansson confronted a major setback during production of her feature directorial debut ‘Eleanor the Great’ when a financial backer insisted on excising the film’s central Holocaust reference. The backer, after months of preparation, deemed the element “the worst lie imaginable” and proposed substituting it with a lesser fabrication. Johansson refused the alteration, resulting in the withdrawal of funding that covered part of the $9 million budget just weeks before filming. This forced an emergency distribution deal with Sony Pictures Classics to secure the necessary resources.

The script, penned by first-time writer Tory Kamen and inspired by her Jewish grandmother, centers on Eleanor, a 94-year-old widow from Florida who relocates to New York following the death of her best friend Bessie. In a moment of profound loneliness, Eleanor misattributes Bessie’s authentic experiences as a Nazi camp survivor to herself within a support group for actual survivors. The narrative unfolds as a comedy exploring the repercussions of this deception, with cutaway sequences revealing Bessie’s unvarnished testimonies rather than depicting the falsehoods directly. Johansson, drawing from her own Jewish heritage—including the 2017 discovery of her great-uncle’s death in the Warsaw ghetto—modeled Eleanor’s character after traits from her grandmother.

Filming commenced in New York under tight constraints, as lead actress June Squibb, aged 94 during principal photography and now 96, had limited availability after her birthday. The production incorporated real Holocaust survivors—numbering approximately 245,000 worldwide—into the support group scenes, where their improvised dialogues stemmed from personal accounts to ensure authenticity. Johansson consulted these individuals extensively to navigate sensitivities, particularly amid increasing global denialism of the Holocaust. She emphasized that the story’s integrity hinged on the lie’s gravity, stating, “It had to be about what happens when someone gets caught in the worst lie imaginable; if not the Holocaust, then what could it be?”

Johansson’s path to directing this project reflects persistent industry hurdles for women, which she addressed candidly in the discussion. She recounted her $40 million settlement with Disney after suing over the simultaneous streaming and theatrical release of ‘Black Widow’ during the Covid-19 pandemic, which forfeited her box-office bonus. On artificial intelligence concerns, she opposed OpenAI’s use of a voice similar to hers for the “Sky” feature in ChatGPT, yet noted a scarcity of peer solidarity in such battles. Johansson also defended her continued collaboration with Woody Allen despite widespread backlash, crediting her mother’s guidance on maintaining integrity and standing firm in beliefs.

Gender disparities in Hollywood recovery from scandals further underscore these obstacles, according to Johansson. She observed that male actors often emerge with a heroic narrative, while women face erasure from opportunities. Co-star June Squibb echoed this sentiment, affirming that foundational challenges for female talent endure, though evolving age norms offer incremental progress. Johansson, who first aspired to direct at age 12 while on the set of ‘The Horse Whisperer’, viewed ‘Eleanor the Great’ as a deeply personal endeavor unconnected to vanity. She questioned her own suitability for the material, remarking, “If I wasn’t Jewish, would I have known how to do this? I don’t know. But that was a factor in me wanting to do it: I knew this world, and I knew versions of Eleanor.”

The film world-premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and schedules UK theatrical release for December 12. Johansson described the moment a project solidifies as mundane yet telling: “Only then will it be real. Until you’re having a bad coffee.” Her insistence on unaltered storytelling preserved the film’s core, transforming potential collapse into a testament to resilience in both narrative and production.

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