Jessica Hecht on How Scarlett Johansson Has Changed Since Their 1st Project (Exclusive)

Jessica Hecht is reflecting on how Scarlett Johansson has changed since the pair first worked together 15 years ago.

The actresses shared the stage in 2010 in the Broadway play A View from the Bridge, and now Hecht, 60, stars in Eleanor the Great, which marks Johansson’s directorial debut. Speaking exclusively with PEOPLE at the film’s New York City premiere at Village East Cinema on Sept. 24, Hecht says she “can’t believe” she and Johansson, 40, had this opportunity to collaborate again.

Recalling their reunion, Hecht shares that the two caught up and talked about “life.”

“What we ate, our stomachs, our thoughts about relationships, her children, my kids are grown, but kids, her mother and father, and really just life. The kinds of things you would talk about with somebody who you think has a beautiful perspective,” she explains.

Hecht noted that because the Jurassic World: Rebirth star is now a mother, she has “perspective on what it means to be successful.”

Johansson shares daughter Rose, 11, with ex-husband Romain Dauriac, and son Cosmo, 4, with husband Colin Jost.

“I think once you’re a parent, you feel so differently about — which is why she’s so perfect for this film — what you feel your responsibility is to someone else,” Hecht explains, recalling that Johansson was “the most delicious cast member” when they did A View from the Bridge.

She continues: “Incredibly, like, ‘I want everyone to be happy and I want to do such a good job on the play.’ And she was so determined. She really was deeply, deeply responsible as an artist. That’s her basic M.O.”

“But I think once you have kids, you’re responsible as an artist, but you’re also so interested in being a good person. Which is just, I mean, the natural evolution of humans,” Hecht adds.

As for her on-set dynamic with Johansson in the director’s chair, the Friends star says it was “very natural, very easy.”

“I really respect her so deeply,” Hecht tells PEOPLE. “I think it’s also for me, a sense that she’s had this tremendous film career. I’m always fascinated by what people have as part of their DNA after having that amount of time in that profession. I find it very powerful, and that she does so little to express the artistry of something that she’s been part of.”

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Eleanor the Great, which premiered in select theaters on Friday, Sept. 26, stars June Squibb in the titular role as “the witty and proudly troublesome 94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein, who — after a devastating loss — tells a tale that takes on a dangerous life of its own,” per a synopsis. After her best friend dies, Eleanor moves to N.Y.C. to live with her daughter, Lisa (played by Hecht), and strikes up an unlikely friendship with a college student (Erin Kellyman).

The film also stars Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rita Zohar and Will Price.

Eleanor the Great is in select theaters now.