java/scala incompatible types, when casing (or using instanceof) a scala class to java class, even though the scala class extends the java class

this is pretty much the code setup:

// java
public class JavaA { 

}

// scala
class ScalaA() extends JavaA {

}

but then in java, if i have an instance of ScalaA somewhere (or even if its null), but try to do this:

ScalaA scalaA = ...
if (scalaA instanceof JavaA) { ... }

on the line with instanceof, intellij doesn't show any error. but if i try to compile the code, i get the java: incompatible types

i've included the scala sdk as a project depedency, the java versions are correct, ive tried invalidating the cache/restarting, etc, but it doesnt seem to work. does anyone know how to fix this?

also, the scala class, it's compiled in a .jar file, and i imported it as a dependency. just like with the scala SDK and stuff

edit: i found a "solution" that seems to work; its not really a fix, but it works for now. i basically just used a function called "forceCast", and the code looks like this:

public static <T> T forceCast(Object value) {
    try {
        return (T) value;
    }
    catch (Exception e) {
        return null;
    }
}

and then

ScalaA scalaA = ...
JavaA javaA = forceCast(scalaA);

realistically, an exception should never be thrown in this case. this actually did fix my issue, and let me compile the code. im not sure about using instanceof, but i guess what i could do is just cast scalaA to an object, and do it that way