Q (interview by Jason Simos): You’ve said before in interviews that you often have several potential film projects percolating at once. How exactly was it that Scoop jumped to the fore? Woody Allen: Well, I had done Match Point with Scarlett Johansson, and we had talked about doing another film together. Scoop was an idea that I had which accommodated both of us, so I thought we would do it.
Q: What was the creative point of entry into this story, in terms of your writing the script – the mystery, the romance, or the concept of Scarlett’s character as a tenacious young journalist?
WA: No, originally the concept was, a reporter so dogged and so determined that he would come back and get his story from the afterlife; that there was a good story to be had that he learned of after death, and nothing would deter him from getting that story. It was an homage to first-rate investigative journalism.
Q: As opposed to some of the Fleet Street journalism we’ve seen over the years.
WA: Well, as opposed to lesser journalism.
Q: So it evolved from there to encompass the young college journalist character played by Scarlett…
WA: Yeah. When I had the idea, I thought it would be a reporter, because I had the idea prior to knowing Scarlett. But when I was formulating the script, and I knew Scarlett was playing the character, it seemed like it was a natural that she was a college journalist on vacation for the summer.
Q: Scoop is your second movie filmed in London, with a third on the way; unlike the character you play in Scoop, have you fallen in love with this city?
WA: It’s a very nice place to film in. I mean, I like filming in New York a lot myself, but London is accommodating to me; the weather’s very good there and the conditions for shooting – the financial conditions, the artistic conditions – are good, so it’s a pleasant place to shoot.
Q: Do you now have favored locations in London – equivalents to, say, Kaufman Astoria Studios or Greenwich Village?
WA: You know, I don’t know the town that well, so I still enjoy going around to all the places in town. I like going around the streets of London, which is a particularly pretty city. So it’s very easy to get locations when you combine the beauty of the city and the beauty of the weather that you get every day; these wonderful, moody, gray, soft-lit skies. It comes out very seductive on film.
Q: In Scoop, it seemed like there are parts of London that you’re still exploring, after Match Point.
WA: Right. Because I don’t know it that well, of course I gravitate to those places that I know or that the art director brings me to that are picturesque. Being a city person myself, naturally I’m taken – I think anybody would be, in London – with the enormous amounts of parks and squares that they have, and the beautiful white houses and beautiful country locations. They’re famous for their country houses and estates, and it’s fun to shoot on those.
Q: To shoot all these locations for Scoop, you’ve reteamed with cinematographer Remi Adefarasin, following Match Point.
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