Sofia Coppola is one of the great directors of her generation. Taking after her father, the 52-year-old director has continuously made irreverent cinema and added to the art form in a way that feels both refreshing and mature. After getting her start in 1999’s The Virgin Suicides, it was the introspective Lost In Translation that catapulted Coppola’s career, earning her an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
What was the age gap between Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray in Lost in Translation?
Lost in Translation starred a 17-year-old Scarlett Johansson and a 52-year-old Bill Murray — a 35 year age gap — which despite the film’s widespread acclaim, has not aged well.
In all fairness, Johansson’s character was older than the actress was in real life – she played Charlotte, a 20-something college graduate who flies to Tokyo with her husband but is ultimately feeling lonely as he spends most of his time working. Murray is Bob Harris, a has-been movie star who is shooting commercials in the Japanese capital. They’re staying at the same hotel and eventually connect while hanging out at the bar, forging a strong connection and friendship which — albeit never turning sexual — has romantic undertones.
Bob and Charlotte only go as far as sharing a kiss, but age gaps in media have been increasingly scrutinized in recent times, and there are few as wide as Lost in Translation‘s. The #MeToo movement — which took off in 2017 — reexamined the power imbalances between men and women and the culture of sexual abuse that had ravaged Hollywood, turning a much more attentive lens toward the representation of women in media and their treatment in the industry, essentially making an intimacy coordinator mandatory on any movie set.
What does Sofia Coppola think about the age gap in Lost in Translation?
Coppola told Rolling Stone in a piece celebrating Lost in Translation‘s 20th anniversary that she recently watched the film with her kids. Growing up Gen Z, they were probably more attuned to the discourse surrounding age gaps and grooming which has taken over the internet over the last few years, so they naturally reacted to the staggering difference between Charlotte and Bob’s ages.
“I showed it to my kids a few years ago when we were going to Tokyo and staying at the Park Hyatt, and that was the first time I’d watched it in a while, and they were like, ‘Why is she so young and he’s so much older?'”
Coppola said she never really thought about that while making the film, despite being closer to her female protagonist’s age. She added that she was just “doing [her] thing at the time,” and prefers not to think about whether the movie would have been made today. Despite the actress being just 17, Coppola also shot some light nudity involving Johansson, which she admits would be harder to do today. “I probably couldn’t do that today, either,” the award-winning director told Rolling Stone.
Ultimately, Coppola stands by the romance of Lost in Translation, which she believes is rooted in the impossibility of the relationship. “I think it’s romantic when you have a connection with someone that you can’t be with for so many reasons, but they still see a side of you that maybe someone of your generation doesn’t.”
Lost in Translation is available to buy, rent, or stream on Netflix.
