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Scarlett Johansson and Rebecca Hall flirt away an Iberian summer in Vicky Cristina Barcelona, writes Joshua Rothkopf

Ideally, an interview with the co-stars of Woody Allen’s latest, the sultry Vicky Cristina Barcelona, would be conducted in person, and not by phone. It would be nice to have plates of delicious tapas brought to our table, warm breezes spinning around our heels. Rebecca Hall and Scarlett Johansson would immediately ease back into their roles as Vicky and Cristina, two American tourists and BFFs spending a summer in Spain. We’d laugh, drink wine, and order another bottle. Eventually the subject would turn to Javier Bardem, whose passionate painter, Juan Antonio, sweeps them both into bed after just such a dinner.

“Um, well, we could flirt in an appreciation-of-the-film kind of way,” Johansson, 23, laughs over the phone from Los Angeles. The British Hall, 26, also on the line from far too distant a location, joins in with the teasing: “Conference call. I feel like such a businesswoman.” Johansson sees an opening. “You are a businesswoman,” she lobs. “Don’t say that,” Hall pleads. “I’ll get paranoid and never wear a power suit again.”

Oh well. Even on the phone, the two do bicker like Woody Allen characters. It quickly becomes apparent that since meeting on Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige (“I was seated at a table and Scarlett got up and left,” Hall notes of their single scene together), Johansson and Hall have become real-life pals. “I love Rebecca,” Johansson interjects. There’s a pause. “I like Scarlett too,” Hall adds tartly. They crack up.

Love, refreshingly, is not the subject of Allen’s exuberant movie, but rather sex and the estrangement of lifelong friends. “Vicky is not very courageous,” Hall says of her buttoned-down character, engaged to be married to the sensible Doug but thrown for a loop by the insistent Juan Antonio. “That could be played for laughs, but it also comes from a truthful, sad place.”

Johansson agrees, taking a stab at the movie’s genre. “Dramedy?” We all cringe. “Horrible word,” Hall adds.

But Johansson, a veteran of three Allen films (“I’d do craft service if he asked me to”), sees a tide change in the filmmaker she’s often been called a muse to. “I think he does have a whole new perspective,” she offers. “If you look at the spectrum of his work, it’s easier to identify it. Woody is more interested now in the disenchantment of youth. I think he’s finally coming to terms with the fact that things don’t happen the way we’d like, or change as much as we want.” Johansson compares Vicky Cristina Barcelona to 1992’s cynically caustic Husbands and Wives, and the resonance is apt. Has Allen, once again, been reborn?

“Is Woody a ‘young’ filmmaker? I kind of feel that’s slightly irrelevant,” Hall says. “He’s a great one. His interests will always be contemporary because they’re universal. It’s human behavior.” Johansson agrees, by way of referencing the death of Ingmar Bergman, a loss that hit the director hard. “He’s always wanted to make his dramatic, dark, introspective film,” she says, “and maybe he’s getting closer to that.” (Johansson, a first-time director on the forthcoming omnibus project New York, I Love You, is open to the idea of putting Allen in front of the camera again. “His fee is too high. He’d probably raise it, just to spite me,” she jokes.)

Johansson’s dog barks – “Shh, Maggie!” – and suddenly the two BFFs are back. On one subject, they’re completely in sync.

“I think everyone would agree that Javier is gorgeous,” Johansson says. Hall jumps in with perfect timing. “And it’s so hard to make someone who could be a bit of a slimeball so likable. He actually comes across as a very sensitive, caring guy, even if he is doing things that could be construed as irresponsible.” Johansson adds, “He’s such a gentle man.”

Friendo? “We hadn’t seen No Country for Old Men before the shoot,” Hall says. “I just remember him saying to us, ‘I’ve just come from this movie with a really bad haircut, so I have to look good.’ ”

Johansson recalls, “We were like, ‘How bad could it be?’ My brother had that haircut when he was two! [Laughs]” The conversation dissipates, there are promises to e-mail and text each other, and as soon as it began, it’s over – like a summer dinner. Sort of.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona opens Thursday 9.