Scarlett Johansson on being ‘groomed’ to play provocative roles when young - “I couldn't get out of it”

Scarlett Johansson, who debuted at the age of nine as a child actor in the industry, admitted in a recent chat that she felt groomed into taking up provocative and sexualized roles during her teen years of her career. With roles in films such as Lost in Translation, Girl With the Pearl Earring and Match Point, the Oscar nominee shared that she found herself doing such objectified roles that were just meant for male desire. “I did Lost in Translation and Girl With the Pearl Earring, and by that point, I was 18, 19 and I was coming into my own womanhood and learning my own desirability and sexuality,” Johansson said.

Scarlett Johansson on being ‘groomed’ to play provocative roles when young – “I couldn’t get out of it”

“I was kind of being groomed, in a way, to be this what you call a bombshell-type actor,” she continued. “I was playing the other woman and the object of desire and I suddenly found myself cornered in this place. I couldn’t get out of it. It would be easy to sit across from someone in that situation and go, ‘This is working.’ But for that kind of bombshell, you know, that burns bright and quick and then it’s done and you don’t have opportunity beyond that.”

The Oscar-nominated actress added, “It was an interesting, weird conundrum to be in but it really came back to working at it and trying to carve a place in different projects and work in great ensembles.” She further explained why she was so eager to grab the role of Black Widow role in 2010’s Iron Man 2, which was also written as “underdeveloped and over-sexualized” at first.

"I got this incredible opportunity to work in the second Iron Man, which that part at the time was very underdeveloped and over-sexualized, but I wanted to form a relationship with Jon Favreau who I worked with a couple of times after that, who's an inspiration for me," she said. "And I also wanted to work with Kevin Feige, who's the head of Marvel, who I knew had a vision for this big picture."

Since then, Johansson stars as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow for Marvel and has delivered multiple hits. She’s also voiced a character in the Sing franchise and starred in dramatic works like Marriage Story and Jojo Rabbit. Next she has Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City duo out in June 2023 and Kristin Scott Thomas’ My Mother’s Wedding.

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