The full photoshoot for Scarlett’s cover for W Magazine has just been released–and what a striking editorial it is. The story below was also published earlier today, I’m uncertain whether or not it’s the complete version we’ll see in the magazine, though.

“When she came out of me, I was so surprised,” Scarlett Johansson told me on a cold day in December. We were at the photo shoot for this story, and Johansson, who had given birth to her daughter, Rose, just three months earlier, was wearing tight jeans and an equally snug white sweater. Her short, almost platinum hair, which would soon be covered by a Debbie Harry circa-Blondie shag wig, was slicked back. “I had a very strong picture in my mind of what my baby would look like,” Johansson continued. “And, of course, she is completely different. Perfect, but not what I’d imagined. Now, of course, I can’t picture her any other way.” Johansson smiled. As always—and I have been interviewing her regularly since her breakthrough role in 2003’s Lost in Translation—she was at once forthcoming and guarded. Johansson, who just turned 30, has been acting professionally since she was 7 and is entirely comfortable in the spotlight. (“Everyone has seen my breasts!” she said when an assistant offered her a private changing room. “I can change my top right here.”) And then, when it truly matters, she can be remarkably discreet. It was months before the public caught wind of her marriage to the French journalist Romain Dauriac.

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THE GUARDIAN – Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin is a film about a beautiful, scary alien that is itself beautiful and scary and alien: it’s an entirely extraordinary, outrageously sensual film that Glazer’s previous excellent work had really only hinted at, partially and indistinctly. His Sexy Beast (2000) was a visually accomplished, exciting and intelligent crime thriller that was way ahead of the woeful mockney-geezer mode of the time. Birth (2004) had Kubrickian ingenuity and chill, with some remarkable moments; it was a movie that deserves cult-classic status but has yet to achieve it. Then a decade went by, and it seemed that Glazer might be a stylist for whom a sustained cinema career would perhaps not be achievable (and heaven knows, it can happen to the most talented).

But when he gave us his long-gestating free adaptation of Michel Faber’s novel Under the Skin, the result really was gasp-inducing: hilarious, disturbing, audacious. No less an A-lister than Scarlett Johansson plays an alien in human form who roams the streets and shopping malls of Glasgow. Perfectly genuine footage of real-life passersby is shown as the incognito Johansson impassively sizes up these earthlings for their calorific value. Then actors will step out of the crowd for their scenes with the great seducer. She takes them back to her place: a mysterious dark cavern in which, in an erotic trance, they submit to being imprisoned and farmed for their meat – and perhaps, who knows, for their very soul.

Glazer surely took something, again, from Kubrick, especially in the scene in which his alien is born in some dimensionless otherworld. He took something from Nic Roeg and The Man Who Fell to Earth and a little, perhaps, from David Lynch – of which, more in a moment. But alongside the sci-fi exoticism he brought the grit and sinew of contemporary realism, calling to mind the work of film-makers like Ken Loach, or even Abbas Kiarostami and the opening of his The Taste of Cherry, in which a desperately unhappy man drives around the itinerant labour markets of Teheran looking for someone to help him. These fantastic alien forms are scuffed with ordinariness and even bathos. The scene in which the alien uncomprehendingly watches Tommy Cooper on television is a masterpiece of tonal suspense.

Watching Under the Skin again brought to mind another comparison: Orson Welles – the Welles who succeeded in creating a hoax martian invasion on the radio and who, in F for Fake (1975), got his partner Oja Kodar to walk around the streets in a miniskirt, secretly filming the lascivious expressions of the non-actor guys looking at her.

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THE PLAYLIST – One of the big narratives in terms of superhero movies over the summer has been the lack of women-led movies in the genre: despite the success of everything that Marvel does, Kevin Feige has remained non-committal in terms of the studio putting out a film with a female lead. And Warner Bros. may have cast Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman in “Batman Vs. Superman” but don’t appear to have made any strides forward in terms of giving the character her own solo movie.

And a backlash is starting to form: Jessica Chastain, being as awesome as she is, spoke up in favor of Scarlett Johansson (who had a monster hit with “Lucy” this summer) getting her own Marvel movie in the last week, and now one of Johansson’s co-stars has weighed in, with Robert Downey Jr, the figurehead of the Marvel movies, also speaking up in favor of a solo “Black Widow” film.

Speaking to USA Today (via Latino Review), Tony Stark himself spoke up in favor of the female character in Marvel movies, saying “Look, I think that the interesting thing particularly after Guardians with Zoe (Saldana), (or) even from the first Iron Man where Pepper was kind of this really – to me the Iron Man franchise would never have taken off without (Gwyneth) Paltrow. There’s something about her that grounded the story. She’s not your typical lady in a superhero movie, and then by ‘Iron Man 3′ she’s swallowing serums and putting on suits and kicking (butt) and all that stuff.” But the actor also added that he’d like to Johansson get top-billing on a project: “It would be kind of more appropriate for a character that already was like a Black Widow (to lead a movie). It just seems like whatever Scarlett does people want to go see it.”

Notwithstanding that the disappointing box office of the awesome “Under The Skin” doesn’t quite back that up, point taken. But that’s not the only Marvel spin-off that Iron Man wants to see. “The funny thing is,” he says,’ honestly, at this point, everyone deserves a franchise. I think Jeremy Renner is—when folks see “Avengers: Age of Ultron” he’s just a rockstar, a badass. And Ruffalo is pumped. He does great (work). I’d like to hear them talk even more seriously about a Hulk franchise, because that’s been one of the toughest ones to get right. But I’m sure that my parent company is feeling expansive and and bold after the summer they’ve had.”

Your move, Marvel. Given the potential of a Hulk or Black Widow movie, or even of a modestly-budgeted “Hawkeye” movie inspired by Matt Fraction’s incredible recent run in the comics, these all seem like good ideas, even if Marvel has other franchises they want to launch too. In the meantime, Downey Jr’s about to open the Toronto International Film Festival with “The Judge” —look for our review in the next few days. And the whole gang will be seen in next summer’s “Avengers: Age Of Ultron.”

VOGUE – She may have created costumes for some of the biggest films of the past 20 years – from The Hunger Games and Harry Potter to Eighties classic Big – but Judianna Makovsky says there’s no doubt about which is the biggest challenge: superhero movies. The costume designer, who has won awards for her creations across many genres, including period dramas, says that her work on the recent Captain America: The Winter Soldier came with challenges not experienced on every film set.

“Well, firstly the directors wanted the clothes to look less superhero and more real; so not a colourful spandex suit,” she explained. “We look to the past for movies like this – the comics, previous adaptations – and we don’t want to stray too far from what the character ‘should’ look like, but also Disney didn’t want it to look exactly the same. The costumes have to look new. Marvel has an incredible knowledge of the character, so we work with them throughout the process, but – although they have to be recognisable – the characters do inhabit different worlds in different films. There’s a lot to balance. Superhero films are definitely the most labour-intensive for a costume designer.”

Working with the actors on set, and in pre-filming fittings, is part of that job, said Makovsky, but it is even more crucial on action-heavy movies – since the costumes must work physically as well as aesthetically. Scarlett Johansson’s character, The Black Widow, is as feisty as she is sexy, which provided its own challenges.

“Scarlett didn’t actually start to fit for the catsuit until two days before we started shooting, so we had to do lots of trials and testing in quite a short timeframe,” Makovsky explained. “It was a challenge to get that many looks done in time. We work very closely with the actors on an action movie. We’ll make different versions of the same costume depending on what she’s doing: boots with running heels, fighting heels, standing heels; costumes that will allow her to kick; others that will accommodate a harness. I supervise all the props as well – shields for every purpose, and masks for different scenes as well. Some parts of the job are more product design than costume. Film is the art of collaboration.”

Multi-million-pound franchises being what they are, Makovsky’s costumes have a life far beyond the film – not to mention the thousands of fans who dissect her work on forums. Although it’s not the first time she’s seen little versions of her work running around – since past films, including Harry Potter, engendered a wealth of merchandise – how does it feel seeing her work worn in the form of dressing-up costumes by children everywhere?

“It’s fun,” she smiled. “The costume designers are actually not involved in merchandise so much – I wish they would involve us more – so sometimes you see a cheap copy and think ‘Oh!’ – but the Captain America ones look great.”

INDIEWIRE – Scarlett Johansson sure has come a long way since “The Nanny Diaries.” Thanks to a quartet of diverse performances over the past year in “Don Jon,” “Her,” “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and “Under The Skin,” Johansson has reached a rapturous peak in her twenty year career and has cemented her status as one of the most exciting actresses working today. On one hand, her integral work as Black Window in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has earned her global recognition as a bona fide ass-kicking heroine, an opportunity she’s seizing this weekend in Luc Besson’s “Lucy.” On the other, her eclectic tastes have kept her feet grounded in the independent film world. After rising to prominence in low budget hits “Manny & Lo” and “Ghost World,” the 29-year-old beauty has continuously stayed true to her independent roots despite countless mainstream efforts. The result is an actress who can confidently headline an R-rated action film while also circulating the latest Coen Brothers project. Unlike many of her contemporaries, Johansson is equal parts blockbuster babe and indie starlet. As “Lucy” sets its target on becoming the sleeper hit of the summer, we look to Johansson’s indie sensibilities with 11 directors who could do wonders with her various talents.

John Carney (“Once,” “Begin Again”)

The latest phase of Johansson’s career has been full of experimentation. From her transformative voiceover in “Her” to the silent improvisations of “Skin,” the actress has been rapidly growing with one risk after another. But while surprises are always welcome, Johansson should not abandon the conventional romantic comedy-drama altogether. Her playful smile is too winning not to be put to good use. It’s a shame the genre has become a tired cliché dumping ground when such contrivances can be so winning given the right cast and material. Enter indie-musical wunderkind John Carney. As proven in the acoustic “Once” and its more glamorized Hollywood sibling “Begin Again,” which has become an indie summer hit with nearly $10 million and counting, Carney can make clichés ripple with genuine feeling by creating relaxed, believable chemistry between his leads. Sappiness and predictability could have killed “Begin Again” if it wasn’t for the likable gravitation between Mark Ruffalo and Keira Knightly. And if Johansson has mastered one thing, it’s effortless chemistry. Even in duds like “He’s Just Not That Into You” and Cameron Crowe’s “We Bought A Zoo,” Johansson’s earnest appeal and natural rapport with her costars have shined bright. And if Carney is looking to make a successful indie-musical hat trick, the actress has sultry singing pipes to spare, just check out her albums “Anywhere I Lay My Head” and “Break Up” for proof. If Johansson is ever in need of a wholesome romantic hit, Carney is her man.

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VULTURE – Over the last several years, Scarlett Johansson’s output has been impressive in its variety: The Avengers, Hitchcock, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof on Broadway, Don Jon, Her, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Under the Skin. This weekend, she stars in the Luc Besson–directed action movie Lucy as a drug mule who finds herself able to access increasingly large portions of her brain’s capacity. Vulture spoke with Johansson about playing hyperintelligent beings, avoiding her own acting tics, and her favorite sandwich.

The first question I like to ask everyone I interview is: Why this movie now?
Why this movie now? [Laughs.] That’s interesting. When I first met Luc, I was doing a Tennessee Williams play that was visceral and raw and this project seemed so abstract. It was challenging in a different way because the character is in this constant state of transition and struggles to hold onto the nuances of herself and her life that make her who she is — that make her human, in her mind. In comparison to the work that I was doing when we met, it seemed like a totally different challenge. It just fit. I didn’t even know how to do it; I just felt I could.

As the movie goes on, you unlock more and more of your brain, and your performance becomes more muted and less emotional. What is going through your mind in these scenes where you’re having to be so elevated but also so restrained?
There’s so much going on inside of her. She’s having all these profound changes and realizations and these sudden “ah-ha” moments. But you still want to watch the person and see that there’s an inner life happening there. The goal is to not make it a story about revenge and not have the performance be monotonous or robotic. It very well might be. I’m not sure that I succeeded in making it anything else. [Laughs.] I was aware every moment of what her abilities were. I had a big chart. Okay, I’m at 40 percent. This is what I’m holding on to. This is what I know now. This is what I’m capable of. Okay, now I’m at 70 percent, so this is what I’m challenged by. She’s gaining all this ability and knowledge but she’s becoming almost childlike in some ways. That’s how I saw it.

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