Scarlett Johansson: filming in Scotland was ‘brutal’

Scarlett Johansson struggled while shooting scenes for Under the Skin in the north of Scotland, she told journalists at the film’s world première this week. The film, directed by London-born Jonathan Glazer, is based on a Scottish novel by Michael Faber and sees Johansson play a seductive alien who makes her way through Scotland while preying on hitchhikers on the A9.

“It was as if [they] had just picked us up and dropped us into the middle of absolutely nowhere,” she said of the shoot in Glencoe in November 2011, where the average minimum temperature was 4.6°C. “It was harsh and it was brutal and it was cold, it was wet and it was terrifying but we pulled through.”

Some scenes for the film were also shot in Glasgow.

Under the Skin premièred earlier this week at the 70th Venice International Film Festival.