In Paste‘s June cover feature on Scarlett Johansson, we focused on how she’s been influenced personally and professionally by her five “dads” (Woody Allen, Bill Murray, Tom Waits, Barack Obama and Bob Dylan). Here’s what she had to say about her actual dad:
“My dad’s Danish. That would be the first adjective I’d use to describe my father. As silly as that sounds, it’s a small nation- and what comes with being Danish, I think, is a very specific sense of humor- very dry- and a certain sense of mortality. That whole kind of Scandinavian perspective is… just looking at Bergman films, you see there’s a different… I don’t know what it is, but it probably comes from living in the dark and cold, and surviving that. My dad has always had a very unique sense of his own mortality, and that this is the way things are, and a kind of what-you-see-is-what-you-get attitude. My dad’s also an architect so he has an incredible aesthetic. I mean every detail, he takes such great care. Even when he’s opening a letter. Even when he used to pack my lunch, he was so specific about the way the creases fold. And he’s very delicate with his hands. He’s very careful, and very visually inspired. He has a very specific aesthetic that leaves an impression on you as a kid. He has a different way of looking at things because he’s an architect, you know. He’s always looking at the structure, the balance, the composition. And even when it’s looking at a bed of flowers, he’ll say ‘Look at how the white balances out the rest. Look at the shadows, look at the shape.’ So I think that’s influenced me visually, really.”