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Pregnant Scarlett Johansson Will Be a "Wonderful" Mom, Says Pal Jon Favreau

ScarJo's Chef director and costar gushes over the mommy-to-be

By Marc Malkin Mar 08, 2014 5:23 PMTags
Watch: Jon Favreau Throws Down in the Kitchen

Is there any doubt Scarlett Johansson is going to be one of the best moms ever?

We certainly don't think so—and neither does Jon Favreau, Johansson's director and costar in the upcoming comedy, Chef.

"She'll be wonderful," Favreau told me yesterday at the movie's opening night premiere at the South By Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin.

"She's one of my favorite people because she's smart, she's talented and she's really down to earth and a hard worker," Favreau said. "I like a hard worker. She really did a lot of work to train to play Black Widow [in the Avengers movies]. She's always pleasant to be around and she's got really good instincts about scenes, she helped me on Chef, she helped me a lot with the script and her character. She's good people."

Merrick Morton

While Favreau says he has yet to hear "formally" that ScarJo is preggers, E! News exclusively reported earlier this week that the 29-year-old beauty is expecting her first child with fiancé Romain Dauriac. The pregnancy news comes just six months after it was announced that the actress is planning to tie the knot with her French journalist beau.

Favreau stars in Chef as a celebrity chef who goes into the food truck business when his restaurant career implodes after he receives a two-star rating as part of a scathing review by one of L.A.'s top critics (Oliver Platt).

Johansson is the restaurant's hostess and a potential love interest for Favreau. Sofia Vergara plays his ex-wife with Emjay Anthony as their young son. Rounding out the cast are John Leguizamo, Bobby Cannavale and Dustin Hoffman along with a hillarious cameo by Robert Downey Jr.

The movie is full of heart, a lot of laughs and it will certainly leave you hungry in the end.

"Unlike when you fake it for a movie, now I have a life skill," Favreau said about learning to cook for the film.

His specialties now include a couple of pasta dishes and a "really good grilled cheese sandwich."

Favreau smiled, "Just really good simple dishes done and seasoned right."

Mmmm.

Last night's premiere included a get together at Franklin Barbeque before the screening and an after-party at Mohawk with guests including Jimmy Kimmel, Jason Ritter and Andy Cohen. The bash also included a peformance by Gary Clark, Jr.