Perfect "Match": Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Rhys Meyers

Irish actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers was the soccer coach all the girls were crushin' on in Bend It Like Beckham and even played the young King of rock and roll "Elvis" on T.V. You'll see him next year co-starring with Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible III. Gorgeous Scarlett Johansson was banished to The Island last summer and won great critical acclaim for her role as a transplanted American in Lost in Translation. She'll soon hit screens in the crime drama The Black Dahlia opposite Josh Hartnett but this month, catch the hot duo as obsessive lovers in Woody Allen's romantic drama with a twist Match Point.

Match Point asks us all what we think about luck and destiny. Do we make our own luck? Are we just destined to fall for certain people, right or wrong? We sat down with the two talented young actors recently in L.A.'s Century City to learn their take on their roles, a hot love scene they shared, working with film legend Woody Allen as their director and what the two feel drives their lives; luck, design or a combo of both. The very casual interview was super comfy as we all sat on couches and overstuffed chairs.

Scarlett, blonde hair up, wore black knee-length pants, gray sweater and turquoise flats with little white and silver hearts on them. Her turquoise earrings were swinging as she talked. She entered the room carrying a large coffee and quickly plopped down on a cushy couch facing us and tucked her feet under her. Jonathan, wearing jeans, black boots and gray tee, looked more casual than he did in the film. While drinking a Red Bull, he ran his hand through his spiky hair and propped his feet up on a coffee table as he settled in next to Scarlett and gave her a kiss.

TeenHollywood: Okay, let's get right to the important stuff. How cold was that love scene in the rain?

Scarlett: (laughs) That scene was pretty miserable. We were so wet. Getting fully wet, drenched when you're wearing jeans is the most unpleasant thing of all time. Especially when you're all nice and toasty and then they're like, 'Okay, we're going to dump buckets of water on you now.' Noooo! At first I was like, 'I can just get wet in the rain.' They were like, 'We have to make you drenched.' I really hated my costumer that day. I really hated Woody that day too. I was like, 'Why rain? It wasn't written. Can't we just do it in a barn?'

Jonathan: I'm not sure how it was written. I don't remember, but it's so sexy in the rain. It had to be used even though it was very uncomfortable and I felt for Scarlett because she has a wheat allergy [they were out in a field] and I bit her lip.

Scarlett: Yeah, we were in a passionate embrace and it was like, 'Do you taste blood?' Then he sent me flowers the next day, it was so sweet. They were red roses. He sent them with a card saying, 'Sorry about your lip.' It was very cute.

Jonathan: Well, it was very passionate because it was my opportunity to gorge myself. People ask me what is it like to get to kiss other people. It is a great pleasure because you get to indulge something that you wouldn't normally indulge in life and you're not judged for it really. Even though the scene is sexy in the film, they're never particularly sexy to film. They are incredibly sexy to watch. The way Woody shot it and the way Scarlett performed it and the energy that we had with each other, it was really hot. Hotter than I thought it would be. You find a 69 year old man trying to direct a sex scene, you're wondering where he's going with it but he managed it beautifully.

TeenHollywood: Scarlett, what are your thoughts on The Island? I enjoyed it but it didn't do as well as anticipated.

Scarlett: The Island more than broke even overseas. Warner Brothers distributed it overseas and Dreamworks had the production here. I think there was a little bit of problems maybe with the marketing of the film. I think it was a little confusing, because everybody that's seen it, they loved the film. It got really great response with audiences and it was pretty well reviewed actually. So I think it was a little bit confusing for people. They didn't really know it was out. Nobody knew when the release date was or what it was about because it was such a secretive kind of plot but the actual end result is a good film. Certainly a film that I'm really proud of and proud of Michael [Bay] for making.

TeenHollywood: You've been blonde for a while now. Any thoughts on going back to brunette?

Scarlett: Sure, yeah. I am blonde in my own natural life. This is my natural color. [When she was a kid] in Horse Whisperer, my hair was a dirty kind of blonde but it's still blonde. It photographed a little bit darker.

TeenHollywood: Has either of you ever been on a double date and been attracted to the friend's date like what happens in this movie?

Jonathan: No. I wouldn't even go on a double date with anyone. I find it the most tedious, boring, awful, torturous situation like Chinese water torture.

Scarlett: [looking at him like 'what!'] Oh, I think double dates are fun. I like double dates. If I'm seeing someone and my friend's seeing someone or we like a couple, I like that. I think it's very kind of old fashioned. I've never had any kind of affair with somebody else's spouse or anything like that. I don't think I have it in me. I might be thinking it but I would never act on it.

TeenHollywood: Jonathan, you play a tennis pro in the movie. Are you athletic in real life?

Jonathan: Yeah, I've become a gym freak over the last year. I have been quite physical. I wanted to change my physicality as I got older to become less of a boy. I'm 28 years old now and I look a bit younger than my age. The best roles for actors don't really come until they're 31-32. You've got to be a man before you play a man. So, I thought in changing my physicality maybe it would open a few more doors. I go to the gym every day, seven days a week. Yesterday, I really pushed myself and I went for two and a half hours. An hour in the morning and an hour and a half in the afternoon.

Scarlett: [frowning] Good lord!

Jonathan: Yeah, it sounds really unpleasant. Actually, by 20 to eight in the evening, I was exhausted by it. I think the last half hour was probably detrimental.

Scarlett: If I had done an hour of working in the gym in the morning, I'd feel so great about myself for the next three days I'd be like, 'I can eat whatever I want. I went to the gym for an hour three days ago.' I can't believe you went back.

Jonathan: Hey, it's my therapy.

TeenHollywood: Jonathan, did you have to get in touch with your dark side for this film?

Jonathan: Well, that exists in me. I think all of us have the capability of killing somebody. If somebody hurt your child, you'd end them. From the point of view of a survival skill, we do have this in us. But in this film, it's a very morally defective choice that [my character] makes. I can't really judge him because I have to believe in why he does it, whether for good or for bad. It is a bad thing that he does, but he's not a bad person, he's a good person in a bad situation. I have to see it that way, because I couldn't play somebody that I totally hated. So I had to find some level of simpatico.

TeenHollywood: Scarlett, your character Nola seems to think there is a difference between sexy and beautiful. She doesn't think she's beautiful. What's that about?

Scarlett: Well, she says, 'What I am is sexy. My sister's beautiful.' Maybe that has to do with her own image of herself as being this sexy character. A lot of people feel sexy I think like when you put on an outfit and you think, 'Hey, I feel sexy.' But I think it's rare that you feel beautiful. I think beauty is something you recognize in other people. I never look at myself in the mirror and say, 'I look really beautiful.' I look at myself in the mirror and say, 'Yeah, I look hot.' Whatever, if you're all dolled up or something. But I don't know if it's something you see in yourself. When I think of something that's beautiful, it's the flaws that you find so attractive. When you're looking at yourself, you see all your flaws and you think of them as being unattractive. When you look at someone else, it's the flaws that make them so beautiful.

TeenHollywood: Is it hard to see yourself as the sexy fantasy girl, a film fatale?

Scarlett: I think Nola is very sexy and certainly my hair and makeup artist spent hours upon hours plastering things on me to make me appear sexier. Her lines in the film are very sexy, her moves are very sexy and I think when I watch the film, I think it's believable that he would hunger after her in that way.

TeenHollywood: What do you think of luck? Do we make our own or do some things just happen?

Jonathan: I've got particular ideas about luck, and my ideas are different from Woody's. I believe that if you think that everything is about luck then you're giving someone else the control. I think to a great extent, you do make your own luck in many ways because luck is opportunity meeting preparation, but lucky people recognize an opportunity when it's there. Unlucky people let it pass them by. You can be lucky by having a talent, but if you do not have the mental preparation to use that talent and push that suggestion as far as it will go, that luck is wasted on you.

Scarlett: I feel pretty d**n lucky. I know I have a chance that's one in a million and certainly a job that's very disposable. I feel constantly lucky that I haven't been found out. All people that are passionate about what they do, feel like they have some kind of destiny. When I was a little kid, I was like the singing, dancing sensation. At least I thought of myself as a sensation, and wanted to be on Broadway. So now I'm in this business with some minor adjustments, being a performer, being an actor. I feel like God, I was always meant to be in this as an actor and this is how it's supposed to be. But, I feel lucky every time I do a movie, every time I get a film financed that I've been fighting for, every time I get cast in a production.

TeenHollywood: Any anecdotes about working with Woody Allen?

Scarlett: Yeah, everything about him. He's much more approachable than I ever thought he would be which made him better than I ever imagined he could be. He's always on set. He might be riddled with his own personal anxiety but in actuality, on set, he couldn't be more comfortable. It's not like he retreats into a cubby hole or anything. He's always on set making script changes and lighting the scene, so it's really nice to have a director that's there all the time.

Jonathan: He's very comfortable in his own skin to the point where if we're lighting a shot, Woody would think nothing of having a nap.

Scarlett: I have a lot of Polaroid pictures of him sleeping on the couch with a giant grip in the background and some huge piece of equipment over him.

Jonathan: I remember one day Scarlett decided to put a sticker on Woody's lapel saying 'Hello, my name is Dennis.' Woody didn't realize this for many, many hours. But, he found out it was indeed Scarlett because who else would have the gumption? His relationship with Scarlett was very funny because he's so amused by her. I think if Woody could be a 21-year-old girl, he'd be Scarlett Johansson.

TeenHollywood: Jonathan, can you tell us anything about working on Mission Impossible III? Was doing a lot of action different for you?

Jonathan: Yeah, it was. Most of the action stuff is left up to Tom [Cruise] because he's bloody good at it. He's probably one of the best stuntmen in the world when you think about it. Every stunt that Tom Cruise is involved in, it's Tom Cruise doing it. There are no stuntmen. He's done things that I think are incredible, especially one thing while we were doing Mission Impossible. He rolls off the Vatican wall which is 75 feet in height. And he comes down face first with a wire on and stops two inches off the deck. At one point, everybody thought he'd hit the floor and bounced back up. Of course he's like 'I'm fine, I'm fine'. And everyone's going over, 'Are you okay, Tom?' He's like, 'That was f**king cool!' Afterwards, he was talking about the pendulum shot that he was going to do swinging over a tank of sharks or something. I'm like 'Cool? It's veritable madness.' I'm not sure it's a quality I share, but I admire it in people.

TeenHollywood: And, Scarlett, who do you play in Black Dahlia?

Scarlett: The movie is based on the James Elroy novel and it's true to the novel so I play a character named Kay Lake. Aaron Eckhart, Josh Hartnett and Hilary Swank are in it. Brian De Palma directing and he's wonderful. I think the film is an absolutely true film noir in every sense of the word, as retro as the word might be. Hopefully, it'll be interesting to see how audiences respond to not just a version of a film noir piece but an actual film noir piece. We'll see how.

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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.