By Sean Chavel in Los Angeles

Match Point is Woody Allen’s best movie in years, and Jonathan Rhy-Meyers ("Bend it Like Beckham") and Scarlett Johansson ("Lost in Translation") headline the major roles. Rhys-Meyers is an Irish tennis player who has an affair with his brother-in-law’s ex-girlfriend played by Johansson. He’s a social climber, she’s a struggling actress. From a prestigious Los Angeles hotel, Rhys-Meyers and Johansson arrive to discuss the experience of making a Woody Allen movie set in London. This is a detour for Allen who regularly shoots his movies in New York. Some of the great New York movies would include Allen’s "Annie Hall," "Manhattan" and "Hannah and Her Sisters" – they are love letters to great metropolitan city. But the relocation to Europe has done Woody good this time, and Jonathan and Scarlett think so, too.

JONATHAN: [Upon entrance] I look a bit skuzzy, I apologize.

Q: WHAT WAS IT LIKE WORKING WITH WOODY ALLEN? WAS EVERYTHING DONE IN ONE TAKE?

JONATHAN: It depends. It’s a process where we don’t rehearse, which suits me perfectly. Sometimes it takes two takes. I think the most I did was eight [takes]. It was very, very easy. Very, very relaxing experience. [Pause] He casts you because you know what you’re doing. He doesn’t cast anyone where he’ll have to sit for three or four hours walking them through a scene. It would bore him terribly. In return, it would bore me terribly if I had to work with a director who felt they had to discuss every breath that I took.

Q: SCARLETT, YOUR EXPERIENCES?

SCARLETT: We have the similar experience, since we were working together all the time. Woody is very hands-off, which I respond very well to. I think he casts people that are capable, that bring more to the film than he can direct them to. [PAUSE] Very short days. And of course [with him], you do no coverage. So that’s great, too. Plenty of time to go out and have dinner. Very, very civilized. Woody always made his dinners at 7 o’clock.

Q: WOODY MADE YOU DINNER?

JONATHAN: No, no.

SCARLETT: No, can you imagine. I wonder what he’d make for us if he did.

JONATHAN: [LAUGHS] It would be his worst nightmare.

SCARLETT: I don’t know if he cooks. He goes out to eat all the time.

Q: DID YOU GUYS ENJOY WORKING IN LONDON?

SCARLETT: I love London. It’s a beautiful city. I have a family there, so I’ve vacationed there before. I’m familiar with it.

JONATHAN: I have lived and shot in London four or five times. I’m familiar with it. But I’m European, so there’s not much difference in living in Dublin or living in London.

Q: NOT REALLY THAT MUCH DIFFERENCE?

JONATHAN: No, it’s a very cosmopolitan city. All capital cities are all very similar, they have all of the same things. Maybe Istanbul is the one place I’ve been to that was different from all the rest.

Q: DID YOU EVER THINK YOU WOULD EVER END UP IN A WOODY ALLEN MOVIE?

JONATHAN: Not many Irish people ever end up in a Woody Allen movie. Only two Irish people. I myself and Liam Neeson who was in Husbands and Wives.

Q: HOW WAS IT AUDITIONING PROCESS FOR WOODY?

JONATHAN: Very easy. I did a taping for him, and he asked to meet me. He came into the room. [Imitates nebbishy Woody Allen] Hey, I’m Woody Allen. I got this script. I’m going to present this script. If you respect the material… I don’t do much rehearsal… Let’s work. [Back to normal] I said yes before I was ever out of the room. It was like sitting for Picasso. Are you going to say no? No you’re not. It was extraordinary that I looked at the script and had the lead role. [PAUSE] You know, it hadn’t even occurred to me that I’ve done this role, and how beautiful a movie it is. In ten years time I’ll be able to look back and enjoy it. At the moment, I’ll be able to look back and enjoy it. It still feels unreal to me.

Q: THIS ISN’T STANDARD WOODY ALLEN MATERIAL. YET IT’S SO SUBVERSIVE, FOR HIM, WAS IT A SHOCK WHEN YOU READ IT INITIALLY?

JONATHAN: Yeah, because I didn’t expect it to be that type of movie… I knew it was not a comedy. That was the one thing that was established before I met him. This is a Woody Allen movie, not a comedy. I couldn’t find out anything else about it… I knew it wasn’t going to be a comedy. Because anybody who would cast me as a comedic actor has got to be f***in’ nuts. I am naturally not a comedian. On a film set recently, somebody asked me to do a funny scene. I told the director over a walkie-talkie, ‘You’ve got to be nuts. You got to be looking at a different actor. I am not a comedian.’ You’ll never see me doing a comedy, because it will never be released.

SCARLETT: What movie was that?

JONATHAN: "Mission: Impossible 3."

Q: DID THEY END UP JUST SAYING, "NEVER MIND, DON’T BE FUNNY"?

JONATHAN: Yeah. Yes, really.

Q: SCARLETT, DO YOU THINK YOU COULD DO A COMEDY WITH WOODY?

SCARLETT: I just did a [follow-up] movie with Woody that is a comedy. Woody and I have a very similar sense of humor. He thinks I’m funny. And I think he’s funny. Which, I dunno, works for the best. With Match Point, I think I was told ahead of time that it was a drama. When you read it, he’s got all his fingerprints on it. It’s definitely a Woody Allen script. As soon as you read the line, ‘You’re driving me crazy. I can’t take it anymore.’ And it’s apparently Woody Allen. He’s done dramatic movies before, but yeah, I was excited especially to be doing this one.

Q: DID YOU GUYS KNOW EACH OTHER BEFORE THE SHOOT?

SCARLETT: No, we just met on this movie.

Q: SO IT IS UNCOMFORTABLE WHEN YOU HAVE TO DO STEAMY SCENES?

SCARLETT: Nah.

JONATHAN: No… I find it a great opportunity to be able to gorge myself on beautiful actresses on-screen and then not to have the emotional pillow talk afterwards.

SCARLETT: [LAUGHS, COMMENTS ARE INCOMPREHENSIBLE] Yes, it was a very passionate embrace. It was like… he did taste my blood.

JONATHAN: Like I said, I gorged.

SCARLETT: He sent me flowers the next day, it was sweet.

Q: WHAT KIND OF FLOWERS?

SCARLETT: They were red roses.

JONATHAN: Actually, I have an assistant.

SCARLETT: It came included with a card that said, ‘Sorry about your lip.’

Q: THIS FILM IS A LOT ABOUT LUCK. HOW MUCH LUCK HAS PLAYED IN YOUR LIVES?

SCARLETT: I certainly feel very lucky. I have a job, a chance to do something I love. It’s one in a million. Actually, Jonathan you said a statistic earlier today.

JONATHAN: Yes. Only 1 in 750,000 actors makes more than a half of million dollars a year at their job. When you think about the percentage of being successful…

SCARLETT: When you keep doing Woody Allen movies…

JONATHAN: The only bad thing about doing Woody movies is your bank account. Actually, it costs you money. It would cost you money, [Scarlett]… you shop!

SCARLETT: [NODS] Yes, I shop.

Q: THIS MOVIE WAS ORIGINALLY GOING TO BE SHOT IN NEW YORK MOST LIKE OTHER WOODY ALLEN MOVIES. BUT THE FINANCING CAME FROM EUROPE. WHEN WERE YOU GUYS CAST, WHILE IT WAS GOING TO BE MADE IN NEW YORK?

SCARLETT: I don’t think anybody had yet be cast. I think that was an early decision. It was never going to be made in New York, even if it was [originally] set in New York. But Woody got the financing from London, so he quickly addressed to it. So he re-wrote it.

Q: HOW MUCH OF THE DIALOGUE WAS ALTERED TO CHANGE IT TO NEW YORK TO FIT LONDON?

JONATHAN: No, very little. Woody already had it doctored by some English people. Changing a few Americanisms that they were never use in London. The only thing that was changed was that I was Irish, so Woody said ‘Why don’t you make him Irish?’ It was an in-joke for me because I have never heard of an Irish tennis player. It’s right up there with a Jamaican bobsled team. But when he asked me to play him Irish, I immediately took up the chance. I’m very pro-Ireland.

Q: DID YOU BECOME A GOOD TENNIS PLAYER MAKING THIS FILM?

JONATHAN: I am an appalling tennis player. I can make it look fairly reasonable, but you know, I would never play a game with anybody.

"Match Point" is now playing in theaters everywhere.