Before Jonathan Glazer’s Under The Skin, Scarlett Johansson had just become an ideal, cinematic fantasy: Black Widow in a stretchy catsuit and hair polished by CGI.
Then, she stripped it all away.
Leaving behind the carefully choreographed Marvel Cinematic Universe, Johansson exposed herself in every imaginable sense, shedding not just superhero gear but every stitch of clothing for a role that turns the concept of a naked fantasy completely on its head.
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The mould-breaking, critically acclaimed 2013 sci-fi film is a complete departure from the big-budget spectacle of The Avengers. Sparse in dialogue and suffocating in its tone, the film centres on Johansson as an unnamed alien driving an old white van through the rain-slicked streets of Glasgow.
Disguised in a cheap faux-fur coat, red lipstick and a dark wig, her mission is as seductive as it is chilling: entice unsuspecting men into her vehicle, lead them into a dreamlike void, and submerge them into a dark, liquid abyss. Why? The film never bothers to explain, leaving the quiet horror open to interpretation.
What makes the film so uniquely captivating is its run-and-gun approach to on-location filming. Rather than employing standard film sets, Glazer fitted Johansson’s van with hidden cameras and sent her directly into the real world.
The megastar literally drove around Scotland, pulling over to flirt and strike up unscripted conversations with actual, unsuspecting passers-by.
The genuine reactions of real pedestrians – some rushing to help, others walking past without a second glance – were captured in real time and woven straight into the movie.
That relentless authenticity culminates in the film’s most discussed sequence: a quiet, full-frontal nude scene where Johansson’s character clinically inspects her stolen human skin in a mirror. It isn’t gratuitous, erotic or designed for the male gaze.
Instead, it offers a raw, vulnerable moment of otherworldly exploration that leaves the viewer feeling like an intruder.
Johansson didn’t go into that scene naively. She considered its artistic merits along with a very real understanding of the consequences that come from shedding her clothes in the digital age.
“You look at the nudity and you assume it’s going to be a screenshot for someone,” she explained during a New York press conference.
Ultimately, Johansson decided exposure was vital to the narrative arc.
“You kind of have to weigh the value of the risk you are taking, is this gratuitous? Is this a vanity project, or is this an important part of this character’s journey to self-discovery,” she said.
“I’m not a provocative person. It’s not like I live to be photographed in the buff or anything like that.”
For Johansson, shedding the glamorous armour of Hollywood to stand completely bare allowed her to reflect on the pressures all women face.
“It really made me aware of when I was doing it, all the kinds of judgments and all of these things we place on ourselves, how self-conscious you can be about the way you look, your own vanity,” she recalled.
“It was really challenging, but it was interesting, like, ‘I really am self-conscious about this,’ or ‘I’m holding on to this idea I should look like that,’” she added. “We all have it. I guess as a woman, we have it more, I don’t know.”
Under The Skin’s hypnotic imagery, coupled with Johansson’s fearless performance, uses seduction to examine what it truly means to be human, delivering a film that will really get under your skin.
Under The Skin is now streaming on Tubi.