Scarlett Johansson: Playing Queen Of Scots Is Hardest Ever Role

Feb 24 2008 By Phil Penfold

HOLLYWOOD stunner Scarlett Johansson faces the biggest challenge of her acting career - playing Mary Queen of Scots.

The 23-year-old star is to portray the legendary monarch in an epic about her life but admits tackling her accent is giving her a major headache.

Scarlett said: "There's a problem with the accent - do I have a French or a Scottish one?

"Although her ladies in waiting were Scottish, Mary had been at the French court since she was a little girl.

"Her main language would have been French. We're yet to resolve that one.

"The script covers Mary's return to Scotland from France and goes up to her death - from triumph to treachery, downfall and beheading.

"I'm researching her now, reading books about her.

"It's going to be fun - Mary was a very complex, very interesting lady. She's one of history's most fascinating women."

The movie's production team are touring the UK looking for filming locations.

Possible sites include Stirling Castle, where Mary spent her childhood and where her coronation was held.

Another is Dumbarton Castle, where the monarch went into hiding, or her refuge at Inchmahome Priory, on an island in the middle of the Lake of Menteith.

Scarlett said: "The film company are scouting locations as we speak. Some will be in Scotland, some in Ireland and a few more in England."

Johansson is also starring as another Mary in The Other Boleyn Girl - Mary Boleyn, sister of Henry VIII's beheaded second wife Anne.

Anne was the mother of Elizabeth I and Henry's desire for her prompted him to defy the Pope and divorce Katherine of Aragon, leading to the establishment of the Church of England.

Anne's inability to provide a male heir led to her execution.

Mary was the king's teenage mistress before he fell for Anne, played in the film by Star Wars' Natalie Portman.

Scarlett said: "Mary caught Henry's attentions and her father and uncle, who were aware of the political and financial advantage having Mary as a mistress of the king would bring, pushed her into his arms. It is believed she even had his illegitimate son. But having been introduced to Mary's sister he dumped her and sent her off into the country."

Scarlett does not think much of the way the Boleyns were used by their male relatives.

She added: "But they were doing it to achieve or maintain wealth and status for their families.

"I can think of a lot of women today who would settle for a rich and influential husband over someone who is a passionate lover so that they get the things they want.

"And let's not kid ourselves, there are plenty of different cultures which propel their young women into liaisons and marriages the girl might not thoroughly approve of.

"You might think that what Sir Thomas Boleyn and the Duke of Norfolk did was medieval but it is still happening today."

Scarlett needed gruelling lessons in Tudor court procedure and social etiquette for the role.

But the hardest thing was learning to move around in the heavy period outfits. She said: "We had to learn how to sit down in corsets and the Tudor hooped skirts. They are not the easiest things to manage.

"But they are good for one thing - hiding hot water bottles.

"We did a lot of filming at Dover Castle, which stood in for the Tower of London, and were there on the wettest and coldest days of the year. It was ghastly.

"The crew were in weatherproof jackets and hats but the cast were just in their costumes.

"When they called 'cut' there wasn't time to scamper back to the trailers, so Natalie and I would grab hot water bottles and shove them up our skirts or down our bodices.

"It may not have been very ladylike but it worked.

"You realised pretty quickly what the Boleyns went through."

Aside from her film roles, this year also sees Scarlett release her first CD, Anywhere I Lay My Head, a collection of songs by blues and jazz legend Tom Waits.

She said: "His songs are incredibly cinematic, his lyrics hit home and his music is very melodic.

"I sing just about everywhere that I go. Casting people always used to ask if I had a cold because my voice, even as a kid, was very husky."

Despite her fame, Scarlett is still a down-to-earth girl.

She said: "I'm grounded and I owe that to my family and friends and the way I was brought up to behave and react.

"When people say 'star' to my face I blush and cringe.

"I take my gran to the cinema and she starts saying to people, 'Do you know who this is, this is my granddaughter and she starred in X, Y and Z.

"I blush, I'm mortified. But that is what grandparents do.

"Whether or not people believe her or they think she's delusional I have not yet found out.

"All I try to do is shush her and hide behind my popcorn."

The Other Boleyn Girl is out in cinemas on March 7.

MAILFILE

MARY Queen of Scots was born in December 1542 and became queen at six days old. She was raised in France, returning to Scotland in 1561. She wed the Earl of Darnley in 1565, giving birth to James VI a year later. Darnley was killed in 1567 and Mary wed the chief suspect, the Earl of Bothwell. The nobility turned against her and she fled to England, where Elizabeth I had her jailed and beheaded to stop her claiming the throne.

MAILFILE

ANNE Boleyn was the second of Henry VIII's wives, beheaded in 1536 for adultery, incest and treason. Her older sister Mary was his mistress before their marriage and it is said she had his son. In 1534, in her 20s, she wed poor soldier William Stafford and was made an outcast.

'Deciding what accent to give Mary is a problem - should I talk with a French voice or a Scottish one?'

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