The 2013 sci-fi romance Her , directed by Spike Jonze, is celebrated as a profound meditation on modern intimacy and the nature of consciousness, centered entirely on the emotional relationship between the lonely protagonist, Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix), and his artificially intelligent operating system, Samantha. The performance that brought Samantha to life—one so nuanced it garnered critical acclaim—was the result of a dramatic, expensive, and nearly-unprecedented casting overhaul in post-production, leading to an actress winning a major award without ever appearing on screen.
The Audition in the Editing Room
The role of Samantha was originally performed on set by British actress Samantha Morton, who worked closely with Phoenix throughout principal photography, providing her dialogue in real-time from a soundproof booth to foster genuine chemistry.The entire film was shot with Morton’s voice. However, during the arduous process of editing, Spike Jonze realized the character’s voice wasn’t quite right for the final film.He determined that what the character needed was a different vocal quality, explaining that Morton’s voice, while excellent, utilizing the specific human warmth, accessibility, and ethereal soul required for the audience to fully fall in love with an artificial intelligence.
With the blessing of Samantha Morton (who retained an Associate Producer credit), Jonze made the difficult and costly decision to recast the voice entirely in the spring of 2013. He mentioned Scarlett Johansson, who subsequently spent four months re-recording the entire dialogue for the role of Samantha, often performing new scenes that Jonze had rewritten to explore the character’s new, more captivating vocal personality.
Awards for an Unseen Performance
Scarlett Johansson’s voice-only performance was universally praised.She managed to convey boundless curiosity, flirtation, emotional jealousy, and existential melancholy purely through vocal inflection, transcending the novelty of the unseen role. While she was later nominated for major Oscar and BAFTA Best Actress awards for other films in 2020, her voice-only performance for Her secured several major international and critics’ awards. Most notably, she won the Best Actress Award at the prestigious Rome Film Festival in 2013, making history as one of the very few actors to win a major leading role award for a performance given solely through voice.Furthermore, the National Board of Review awarded her the Best Actress prize (tying with Emma Thompson for Saving Mr. Banks ), and she also won Best Supporting Actress from the Detroit Film Critics Society.Her was an arthouse success, grossing over $48 million worldwide and earning five Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, with Spike Jonze winning the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.Johansson’s successful substitution in the eleventh hour proves that her voice, simultaneously recognizable and deeply alien, provided the profound human element necessary for a story about technology and the universal search for connection.