Scarlett Johansson announced recently that she’s expecting her first child with fiance Romain Dauriac, and the news came as a surprise to many. But to those who know her well, it was an excuse to talk up one of their favorite people.

Jon Favreau, who directed the actress in “Iron Man 2”, heaped praise on the 29-year old, saying there’s no doubt she’ll be a wonderful mom.

“She’ll be wonderful,” Favreau said during an interview at SXSW. “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. 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.”

Johansson was reportedly as shocked as we were to find out she was with child, but a source says she and Dauriac are very happy.

“She’s about four months along,” the source said. “The baby was a welcome surprise!”

The actress is still working on “Avengers: Age of Ultron”, but producers are reportedly “tweaking” some things to make filming safe for Johansson and for the continuity of the story.

Image via Wikimedia Commons