Scarlett Johansson V Magazine Cover

Scarlett Johansson covers V Magazine while reenacting the shower scene from 1960′s Psycho that’s recreated in this year’s Hitchcock in which she’s required to do little but have breasts and out-act Jessica Biel. It’s not a very flattering cover and not just because she’s wet and a little bedraggled in the shower. And that fake-scream-without-making-any-noise face isn’t helping either. Inside the issue, Johansson is asked about her sex appeal despite making it clear the last two years she’s completely and utterly bored of talking about it.

On the lead up to the shower scene: ‘We only had the luxury to shoot the scene for a day, and everybody was feeling very nervous because it involved water and nobody wants the actor to get wet. They were concerned with modesty and all these things… but I don’t care about any of that stuff and Janet Leigh never did either.’
On the scene itself: ‘You have got to be brave, get into the shower, and face Anthony Hopkins as Hitchcock jabbing you in the face with a 12-inch kitchen knife. As much as Anthony Hopkins is a pussycat, he’s terrifying. Maybe I watched Silence of the Lambs too much many times when I was a kid. Maybe I was having some flashbacks. So I didn’t need to much preparation for the scene.’
On her sex appeal: ‘I think all little girls are aware of their sex appeal, I think probably more so when they’re pubescent. I mean I remember being an extremely flirtatious little girl. I liked boys. I think I was also inspired by certain films I watched when I was a girl. I loved Judy Garland and I loved these Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals and I had this idea of romance, the dream girl getting the dream guy, and all that stuff.’
On living in Paris: ‘I’m living and vacationing here all at once. Then I go back to New York to start preparation for a play in the fall. But I’m convinced it will be the death of me. So I’m going to spend a couple of months mourning the loss of my existence.’