Scarlett Johansson Says She Has ‘Great Chemistry’ with Sam Rockwell Ahead of Their 3rd Movie Together (Exclusive)

Scarlett Johansson Says She Has ‘Great Chemistry’ with Sam Rockwell Ahead of Their 3rd Movie Together (Exclusive) https://ift.tt/usOLDFZ

Johansson and Rockwell previously costarred in ‘Iron Man 2’ and ‘Jojo Rabbit’; their new movie ‘Ray Gunn’ is in select theaters Dec. 4 and on Netflix Dec. 18

Sam Rockwell and Scarlett Johansson on Oct. 10, 2026
Credit: Dave Benett/WireImage

NEED TO KNOW

• At the London Film Festival, Scarlett Johansson tells PEOPLE all about the onscreen chemistry she and Sam Rockwell have developed over three movies they have made together
• The pair next lend their voices to the upcoming animated Netflix movie Ray Gunn
• Ray Gunn is in select theaters Dec. 4 and begins streaming on Netflix Dec. 18.

Scarlett Johansson is detailing how well she and Sam Rockwell work together ahead of the release of their new animated movie.

On Saturday, Oct. 10, Johansson, 41, caught up with PEOPLE at the London Film Festival premiere of Ray Gunn, a new Netflix animated movie from filmmaker Brad Bird (The Incredibles) that is also Johansson and Rockwell’s third time acting together. The new movie sees Rockwell, 57, voice a private investigator named Raymond Gunn in an alternative reality stylized like the 1930s. Rockwell’s title character “is drawn into a case involving aliens, murder and a multimedia star named Venus Nova,” whom Johansson voices, per an official logline.

“Oh, I love Sam. I mean, he’s one of my favorite actors, period,” Johansson says on the red carpet. “And so when I get to work with him, it brings me a lot of happiness because I just get to work opposite somebody that I humongously admire, and I’ve known him for a long time, and I feel like he could do anything.”

Rockwell and Johansson previously costarred in 2010’s Iron Man 2 — Rockwell played the villain to Robert Downey Jr. and Johansson’s Marvel heroes — and in 2019’s World War II-themed comedy Jojo Rabbit. “I think we have great chemistry because we’re friends, and you both admire one another. So it’s a pleasure,” Johansson says. “We’ve been all over, like, decades, have done all different kinds of stuff together. So I love that camaraderie.”

Sam Rockwell’s character Raymond Gunn in the Netflix animated movie Ray Gunn
Credit: Skydance Animation/Netflix

Ray Gunn also features the voices of Tom Waits, Bobby Cannavale, Michelle Rodriguez, Alan Tudyk, Patton Oswalt and more. At the movie’s London premiere, Johansson notes that voice-only performances are “really a challenging medium” for her and her costars due to the limitations placed on their performances.

“You don’t have, obviously, the rest of your physical body,” she says. “When we were together and working through stuff, I think you get something out of the performance that you don’t necessarily get when either one of us is just laying down the vocal without the other person there because you get the chemistry and it’s messy and stuff like that.”

“And I think for Brad, it’s fun,” she continues. “It’s a fun challenge because he’s animating something that’s messy a little bit. It’s not perfect, and he loves that.”

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Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson and Roman Griffin Davis in 2019’s Jojo Rabbit
Credit: Larry Horricks/Twentieth Century Fox

Both Johansson and Rockwell are at the center of multiple high-profile movies hitting theaters this fall. Johansson also costars with Miles Teller and Adam Driver in Paper Tiger, in theaters Nov. 13, while Rockwell reunites with writer-director Martin McDonagh for Wild Horse Nine, in theaters Nov. 6.

Ray Gunn is in select theaters Dec. 4 and begins streaming on Netflix Dec. 18.