Bette Davis Was The Blueprint For Scarlett Johansson's Asteroid City Role

Wes Anderson's latest film takes place in the fictional desert town of Asteroid City, where quirky folks of all stripes come together for an annual convention and possibly discover aliens along the way. One year, the convention marks the accidental arrival of a widower named Augie (Jason Schwartzman) and his kids, and Augie soon seems to make a connection with another visitor, Midge Campbell (Johansson). Johansson's character, an actress and mother, is among the many dreamers who populate the brightly-colored world of Anderson's latest tale, which Lex Briscuso called a "top-tier Wes Anderson original that brings back the carefree fun and charm of some of his best works" in her /Film review.

In the trailer for the film, Johansson's Midge is made up in the style of a classic cinema star, with perfectly coiffed dark hair, blood-red lips, and a complexion that doesn't seem the least bit affected by the desert air. She looks familiar, but not exactly like any movie star we've seen before. We get the sense, from the somewhat bored way she addresses Augie through the open window between their homes, at one point referencing a nude scene she did in a movie once, that she's grown used to her own level of stardom. In another scene, Hope Davis' character compliments one of Midge's apparently controversial roles, in which she played a "tramp in a brothel who gets amnesia." But it turns out, Midge actually was inspired by a specific celebrity.

As Johansson told Entertainment Weekly in a recent interview, Bette Davis, the two-time Oscar-winning star of films like "All About Eve" and "What Ever Happened To Baby Jane," was apparently the main source of inspiration for the desert-locked starlet. Johansson has nothing but good things to say about the actress, whose personal life garnered as many headlines as her professional life, even inspiring the Ryan Murphy series "Feud." According to Johansson, Davis and Midge aren't the same person, but understanding Davis' career helped her embody Midge. "I'm not playing Bette Davis," she clarified, "but it helped give an idea of what this person's career is and what it was like to be a woman in those circumstances then."

Davis certainly faced many obstacles as a woman who witnessed and endured Hollywood's many evolutions, from being sued by Warner Bros. — then still synonymous with Jack Warner — for breach of contract, to dealing with costars displaying what she once called "the masculine ego, outsized at birth" in her autobiography (per Vanity Fair). "She's formidable and vulnerable at the same time and just really captivating," Johansson told EW. "Bette Davis' whole career, the span of it, was something I could hang my hat on."

Davis acted for over 50 years, beginning in the 1930s with the pre-code film "Bad Sister," and ending with the 1989 Larry Cohen comedy "Wicked Stepmother," released the same year as her death. Johansson says that when audiences meet Midge in this 1955-set film, she's "in the prime of her career," but she also notes that the character will "be working forever."

Midge is apparently quite confident in her lasting star power. As Johansson explains, "She's looking forward, she wants to play the great roles and is looking forward to her destiny. Her legacy will be as one of the greats." This vision feels slightly at odds with the lackadaisical vibe of Asteroid City itself, which seems from trailers like a town that people might land in and never quite bring themselves to leave. 

Of course, there's also the whole matter of possible contact with extraterrestrials being made in town, which would no doubt bring the cameras back to Midge. Regardless, Asteroid City seems like a neat place to visit, and audiences will get the chance to drop in when the film goes wide in theaters beginning June 23, 2023. The film is playing now in New York and Los Angeles.