She filmed every scene of Her, then Scarlett Johansson’s voice erased her from the movie – 3DVF
Samantha Morton shot her entire performance as the AI Samantha opposite Joaquin Phoenix during Her’s 2012 principal photography, only for Spike Jonze to recast the role with Scarlett Johansson in post-production over Morton’s British accent. Speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Morton called the experience painful, saying “it does hurt when you’re fired from something,” before conceding of her replacement, “Scarlett Johansson, I mean, come on.”
Joaquin Phoenix spent weeks on set in 2012 talking to a woman locked inside a padded booth, sometimes recording from the trunk of a car so he’d never see her face. That woman was Samantha Morton, and every line she delivered as the AI voice in Spike Jonze’s Her ended up on the cutting room floor. Jonze decided in the edit that her performance, unmistakably British, wasn’t what his character needed, so he brought in Scarlett Johansson and reshot additional scenes in August 2013 to fit her voice instead. Morton has now broken her silence on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, admitting the whole ordeal still stings years after Her went on to win the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
A recast hidden inside an Oscar winner
Before Scarlett Johansson became the voice of the operating system Samantha in Her, another actress played the role from start to finish. Samantha Morton recorded her lines opposite Joaquin Phoenix during principal photography in mid-2012, shot in Los Angeles and Shanghai. Speaking on Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast in August 2026, while promoting her role as Circe in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, Morton finally detailed how she was replaced.
A padded booth, a car trunk, and an accent problem
To keep Phoenix from ever seeing his co-star, the production built a black, padded phone booth from which Morton delivered her dialogue, sometimes recording from the trunk of a car. During editing, Spike Jonze concluded that Morton’s performance wasn’t what the character needed, and he brought in Johansson, with additional scenes filmed in August 2013.
Morton points to her accent as the core issue. “I have to say, I think my version of Samantha was very… she’s English,” she said, calling her take “very, very different” from what Jonze wanted. “What I’d have wished for was another chance in a booth to do an American accent,” she added. That opportunity never came.
A little sad would be an understatement
Morton did not sugarcoat the experience. “It does hurt when you’re fired from something,” she said, while acknowledging that final casting is every director’s prerogative. “I was surprised… and that’s putting it mildly,” she recalled. She was gracious about her successor all the same: “Scarlett Johansson has a beautiful voice. She’s incredibly evocative.” Then came the resigned punchline: “But Scarlett Johansson, I mean, come on.”
The film that thrived after the switch
The recast did nothing to slow the movie down. Her premiered at the New York Film Festival on October 12, 2013, went wide on January 10, 2014, and grossed over $48 million worldwide on a $23 million budget. Johansson’s disembodied performance became one of the most discussed vocal turns in modern cinema, all without her face ever appearing on screen.
Awards followed. The film earned 5 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, and Jonze took home the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay at the 86th Academy Awards on March 2, 2014. Morton, for her part, moved on: American audiences can next hear her opposite Matt Damon’s Odysseus when Nolan’s epic reaches theaters.