Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut: ‘Eleanor the Great’ highlights urgency of Holocaust remembrance as survivor generation fades

With the last generation of Holocaust survivors expected to be gone within 15 years and global antisemitism reaching record levels, the urgency to preserve the stories of those who endured the Holocaust has driven a wave of new projects to the big screen.

In her recent directorial debut, “Eleanor the Great,” American actress and singer Scarlett Johansson tells the story of a 94-year-old woman who deals with the sudden loss of her best friend, a Holocaust survivor, and begins recounting her friend’s experiences as if they were her own.

Johansson, whose mother is Jewish and father is Danish, has always been connected to her Jewish roots, but didn’t know the specific details of her own family’s Holocaust story until a 2017 episode of the PBS show, "Finding Your Roots."

Speaking about her new film, “Eleanor the Great,” Johansson said, “The film celebrates heritage and the importance of preserving the Jewish people’s stories. That is something I can absolutely relate to because I lost many relatives in the Holocaust. I was not always aware of it. Those stories were buried within the pages of family history, and I only discovered them recently. Without my connection to Judaism, I do not think I could have told the story with the same authenticity.”

Johansson is the highest-grossing female actress of all time, with her films earning more than $15.4 billion worldwide. She is widely known for blockbuster hits such as “Iron Man 2,” the “Avengers” series, and the “Captain America” films, among others.

The premiere of “Eleanor the Great” at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year drew a packed theater and an emotional standing ovation lasting several minutes. The film was featured in the “Un Certain Regard” section and competed for Best First Feature.

Johansson told Israel's Ynet News that the script made her cry.

“So I knew there was potential for tears in the final film, too. During many moments on set, I saw cast members crying. I have seen the movie thousands of times, and it still makes me cry. It moves me differently every time.”

“Before the premiere, I hadn’t watched “Eleanor the Great” with an audience that wasn’t connected to me in some way,” she said. “To be in that room with everyone, to see their faces and experience it together, was surreal. But in a good way. It felt like a massive release.”

Johansson described the act of crying during movies as a deeply cathartic experience.

“When I was younger, as a teenager, I used to hold back my tears, and it hurt,” she said. “I think holding tears inside is physically painful. At some point, I asked myself why I was doing that and started allowing myself to cry in the theater. It was freeing. It feels good to cry surrounded by others who are also emotional. I remember watching the animated film ‘Up’ and realizing five minutes in that I was crying out loud. I looked around and everyone else was too. It is amazing when emotion becomes a collective experience. It is real catharsis.”

The film is not only deeply moving but also filled with humorous scenes.

“The script for ‘Eleanor the Great’ was also very funny,” Johansson said. That was a gift. For me, it would have been impossible to make a film without humor.”

She told Ynet that she grew up in a family with a good sense of humor. “My father is Danish, so his humor is very dry. My mother is Jewish, and in that cultural context, humor is a major part of identity. It is a very specific kind of humor. Growing up in New York added another layer. I tend to find humor even in tragic situations and irony in hard moments.”

The film’s main character, Eleanor, is played by June Squibb, who was born to Christian parents and converted to Judaism in the 1950s, before marrying her first husband, who was Jewish.

Squibb’s career began on stage and in commercials before expanding to major film roles, including "Alice, The Age of Innocence," and "Scent of a Woman," as well as an Oscar- and Golden Globe–nominated performance in Nebraska in 2013. Most recently, she earned widespread acclaim and several award nominations for her lead role in the hit comedy, "Thelma," in which she plays a Jewish grandmother determined to recover money lost in a phone scam.

In “Eleanor the Great,” Squibb plays an elderly Jewish woman who moves to New York to live with her daughter and grandson after the death of her closest friend and roommate of 12 years, Bessie, played by Israeli actress Rita Zohar.

Eleanor unwittingly joins a support group for Holocaust survivors at a Jewish community center. She soon begins presenting Bessie’s Holocaust stories as her own in order to fit in. A young journalism student, played by Erin Kleiman, hopes to feature Eleanor’s accounts in an article, further complicating the situation.

“For me, the moments when we see into Eleanor’s inner world are the most important,” Johansson said. “When the audience sees her grieving, guilty, lonely and disappointed. Equally important are the moments when she experiences compassion from others, like when someone at the support group tells her, ‘You have a good heart.’ Those are words she needed to hear because she is such a difficult person, especially with her daughter. It was important for the audience to see that part of her.”

The film is about the “importance of preserving Holocaust survivors’ stories and about who has the right to tell them once we are gone,” Johansson said. “That is a question we are grappling with right now, and it is very much part of our time. For me, the heart of the story is Eleanor’s mistake. It is an unforgivable error, one that almost cannot be pardoned. Still, I hope the audience understands that her actions come from grief, loss, loneliness and love.”

“At the end of the film, Eleanor says, ‘I have to tell Bessie’s story because she cannot.’ For her, that is an urgent need. I hope people feel empathy for Eleanor by the end. That is the most important thing to me.”

Johansson collaborated closely with the USC Shoah Foundation to ensure the story’s authenticity and to cast Holocaust survivors in the support group scenes.

“I was lucky with the timing of making this movie,” she continued. “In a few years, I think it would be much harder to make a film like this. Casting the support group scenes and seeing who was able and willing to participate made that very clear. There are 250,000 survivors today, but next year there will be far fewer. In that sense, the urgency I felt while making the film surprised me.”

The movie fell through several times due to a lack of funding, Johansson explained. “People we approached for funding would ask, ‘Maybe you want to make it next spring?’ And I would say, ‘I’m not sure you heard me. My lead actress is 94. She is ready to make this movie now.’”

With the filming of “Eleanor the Great,” Johansson has fulfilled a lifelong dream of stepping behind the camera as director.

“When I was very young, I thought I would act until I was older and then start directing,” she said. “Directing always seemed like the most interesting job. But as I grew up, I prioritized improving as an actor and understanding the craft deeply. I feel that ‘Eleanor the Great’ came at exactly the right moment in my life, when I could read a script like this and know I could truly bring it to life. I do not think I could have done it ten years ago. I did not have the confidence then.”

The film, which was partly filmed in Israel, was released under the title "The Great Eleanor" to audiences on Nov. 6.