English actress Emily Mortimer has had a slow burning, but much acclaimed career in British films from Lovely & Amazing to The 51st State. By contrast Scarlett Johansson has been the subject of Hollywood hype following star turns in Lost In Translation and Girl With A Pearl Earring. Here, both women reflect on the role luck has had to play in bringing them together for Woody Allen's dark crime drama Match Point.

This story leads to some very dark conclusions. Was it the boldness with which it was written that drew you to the project?

EM: I thought it was incredibly bold and very striking. I got to the end and it was just so devastating somehow and almost amoral. I don't know if that's a word that he [Woody Allen] would approve of but I just think there's a place for a movie like this nowadays. I think most people are scared, even in making indie, arthouse movies and even if they have sad endings you feel like there's this desperate concern of the filmmaker to show that there is some overarching morality and that we can make sense of the universe somewhere, somehow. I think it's really good to pose the question, or just put it out there, that maybe we can't and maybe it is all down to the toss of a coin or whatever - that it's all chaotic somehow. That's really important, I think there's definitely a place for that nowadays.

Do you feel that you can apply the idea of chaos and luck to your own lives?

SJ: Professionally I feel incredibly lucky, my job is certainly very disposable, and I'm very replaceable. I have many friends who are struggling. To be a working actor is a lucky thing. I feel that I caught a lucky break to start with and have been continuously lucky, to be able to work and not be found out. I was very, very lucky to work with Woody. That I was not already working that summer, that I had the summer off and there'd been a couple of years where I'd been working steadily. And that was incredibly lucky for me. I think when you're passionate about something it's a very romantic idea to believe in a destiny, but when it comes down to it, it's really being in the right place at the right time.

EM: I feel like this has been my luckiest break, honestly to be in this film. I don't think I've ever been in a film that's been nominated for Golden Globes before. I feel very excited and I feel deeply proud of it. I feel like it was luck that I, as an English actor, got into the movie. It could have been made in New York - it was just by chance a financing issue that meant it ended up being filmed in England. That gave me a head start because they then had to cast mostly English actors, whereas if it had been in America I think it would have been much less likely that I would have ended up in a Woody Allen film. It's something that you don't even dare to daydream about, as an English actor being in a Woody Allen movie. So this to me feels like huge good luck.

But surely luck can only take you so far...

EM: I was thinking about the whole issue, because we keep getting asked about luck in all the interviews, and I couldn't work out what I thought about it. It's quite confusing when you think of your own life when you think what parts of it are luck and what parts of it are fate, and what parts are just there. I finally came to the conclusion that actually what's important is that we all get lucky breaks and we all get a lot of bad luck in our lives. What separates us out is how you cope with the bad luck, because that's the test. Anyone can ride the wave of being in a great movie, directed by Woody Allen, and everybody thinking it's fantastic. That's easy to cope with. It's just when things turn shit, how do you deal with that? That's the test.

Scarlett, your wheat allergy must have made shooting a love scene in a wheat field quite uncomfortable. Is it true Woody was completely unsympathetic?

SJ: He, for some reason thinks I'm a hypochondriac, which I find to be absolutely ridiculous. I'm just environmentally sensitive, that's all. Rolling around in a wheat field in the rain is not the best thing for anybody with allergies to do. But like you say, he was very unsympathetic. He said that if my eye swelled to the size of his fist I could have two days off. So that was about it. It wasn't so bad, but have you seen the size of his fists? They're not small. It was slightly swollen but nothing a couple of Allegra D couldn't cure.

Did you notice any significant differences between working in America and working in London?

SJ: It's not so different, there are plenty of very talented artists, make up artists and costume designers, our cinematographer, the electricians and grips and everybody was lovely and more than capable. They make wonderful films here and are used to having big productions here. It was very comparable. The only thing that I would add would be the craft service, but as far as a culture shock, I have family here and friends here. I'm from Manhattan and I find London and Manhattan to be quite comparable.

Was there anything you could get in New York that you couldn't get here?

SJ: A decent bagel!

Match Point is released in UK cinemas on Friday 6th January 2006.