Scarlett Johansson didn’t intend to star in her new movie Fly Me to the Moon – but then the script changed her mind.

In the new romantic comedy, the Avengers actress stars as a marketing executive who teams up with Channing Tatum’s NASA director to stage a fake Moon landing as a back-up during the 1960s Space Race.

Johansson’s production company These Pictures developed the story from an original idea and she originally had no plans to star in it. However, upon reading the script, the actress couldn’t imagine anyone else playing Kelly.

“I never thought I would be acting in this film and then the script came in and it was so great. I loved the script so much. The tone of it was so fresh and just original and funny. You just don’t read scripts like this often… It was touching, it’s entertaining, it felt like this big idea,” she told Extra in a joint interview with Tatum.

“The character is so perfectly written. It felt like it was written for me. I just could not imagine someone else playing it – it would make me too jealous – and so I was like, ‘I have to play this part.’ You don’t get those opportunities to have that kind of dialogue (often), our banter and the relationship that these two characters have is just so fun to play.”

The Black Widow star added that she was drawn to Kelly’s enthusiasm, creativity, relentlessness and “incredible zest for life”.

Fly Me to the Moon, directed by Greg Berlanti, will be released in cinemas on 12 July.

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