Venice International Film Festival director Alberto Barbera has revealed Scarlett Johansson was ‘almost in tears’ when her film Under The Skin was booed in 2013.

The film festival’s director recounted the story in a recent interview with The Guardian, where he told the publication that the sci-fi drama film was met with tepid applause and “a smattering of boos” from the audience.

“It was one of the worst screenings I’ve attended; it was the only time the audience booed a film,” Alberto recalled. “Scarlett was almost in tears.”

The director continued, “I tried to say to her: ‘Don’t worry, in time the film will be recognised.’ And that’s exactly what happened. It’s now a cult movie.”

Far from being a cult movie, Under the Skin is now considered a modern classic and was voted the best British film of the 21st century in a 2022 poll of film critics conducted by MASSIVE Cinema.

In the 2014 film, directed by Jonathan Glazer, Scarlett portrays a shape-shifting extra-terrestrial preying on unsuspecting Glasgow men.

This year’s instalment of the annual festival kicked off on Wednesday and will continue until 9 September.

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