A new report from The Wall Street Journal reveals that audio of Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver screaming at each other in Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story” is being used by the United States Department of Agriculture to scare off wolves from killing cattle and scaring livestock on farms across the America. The fight scene is the most emotionally volatile moment in Baumbach’s 2019 drama, which earned both Johansson and Driver Oscar nominations.
Per the WSJ: “Riding to the rescue are drone cowhands, whose quadcopters have thermal cameras that can reveal any wolf lurking in the darkness and bathe it in a spotlight. A loudspeaker broadcasts alarming sounds like fireworks, gunshots and people arguing. One recording is of the fight between Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver in the movie ‘Marriage Story.’”
“I need the wolves to respond and know that, hey, humans are bad,” a USDA district supervisor in Oregon told the publication.
“Wolf hazing,” as the practice is called, also uses loud music like AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” to scare off deadly wolves. The USDA has relied on drones because gray wolves had long been on the federal government’s list of endangered species. The process seems to be working. As the WSJ reported: “Drones were deployed in the Klamath Basin of southern Oregon after 11 cows were killed by wolves there in a 20-day period. Over the next 85 days when drones were on patrol, only two were killed.”
“Marriage Story” stars Johansson and Driver as a couple going through a bitter divorce and custody battle over their son. The movie earned critical acclaim after premiering at the 2019 Venice Film Festival. Variety’s Owen Gleiberman named “Marriage Story” the second best movie of 2019.
“Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson, in spectacular performances that work together with searing intimacy, enact the anger, pride, despair, and passion of a couple who tear their relationship apart, and their souls too, even as they both struggle to remain whole inside,” Gleiberman wrote. “‘Marriage Story’ tells the story of divorce in our time, and in doing so it earns a place next to those harrowing and heartrending texts of separation, ‘Kramer vs. Kramer’ and ‘Scenes from a Marriage.’”