Scarlett Johansson Helped Child Star Through Tricky Jojo Rabbit Shoot

Scarlett Johansson has been praised by Jojo Rabbit´s child star Roman Griffin Davis for helping him through his first movie shoot.

Remarkably, Roman´s performance in Taika Waiti´s black comedy about Jojo, a boy living in Nazi Germany who has a comic version of Adolf Hitler as an imaginary friend, has earned the 12-year-old Brit a Golden Globe nomination, despite it being his first screen role.

He has praised his famous co-star, who portrays his mother, for using her own experiences as a child actress for helping him cope with his nerves about playing a complex kid who has been brainwashed by Nazi propaganda.

"She was a child actress and she´s now a mother - she could tell I was a bit nervous and scared about playing this character so she really helped me. She was always supportive and she´s a clever person," he tells the BBC.

He also praised its director for teaching him about how Hitler and the Nazis indoctrinated children.

"Taika told me about Hitler brainwashing children, we saw it as like a layer of paint going over the child," he says."Jojo was brainwashed but he was an innocent kid, he wasn´t always bad, so I tried to show that."

As well as satirising the Nazis, Roman says Jojo Rabbit also makes important statements about our current politics.

"I won´t name names but in some politics, they´re spreading hate through the internet, that´s spreading hate unconsciously," he explains. "And I think it´s just for the next generation they need to know that their hate can really do damage."

Jojo Rabbit is in cinemas now.