Scarlett Johansson is the latest cover profile in The Gentlewoman, a British magazine. She’s promoting Black Widow, which finally has a solid (ish) release date. Scarlett is Scarlett, which is to say… problematic, self-absorbed but also kind of interesting and funny. She contains multitudes, and some of those multitudes are garbage and some of them are talented. I bring up ScarJo’s past problematic moments – like her very vocal support of Woody Allen, and her tone-deaf comments comparing playing trans characters to playing “trees” – because she talks about her many controversies in this piece. And by that I mean, she talks around her offensive sh-t and glosses over everything. You can read the piece here. Some highlights:
How she handled the pandemic: Scarlett found herself “kind of flummoxed. I don’t know, I was having an out-of-body experience….At the beginning, I was doing all this crap that everyone was doing – like, I’ll start learning how to play guitar. Whatever. In between panicking. And then that stuff sort of faded away, and I realised actually that I exist pretty well in this space. I realise I don’t have to be constantly in motion to survive, I think. I’ve always had this fear of, what if everything goes away, what will become of me? It’s this great fear of the unknown, and now I’ve been that way for some time, I realise, Oh, actually, you’re still alive. It probably comes from some fear of death, anyway.”
Spending time with her daughter during lockdown: “Eventually you have to accept that this is going to take the time it’s going to take, and I had to be there for my daughter, obviously, immediately, like all parents. That’s very grounding.”
Her many controversies: “Yeah,” she says drily about her apparent attraction to controversy, “I’ve made a career out of it.” On one hand, she says, “I’m going to have opinions about things, because that’s just who I am.” But equally, she knows that sometimes she has simply made the wrong call. “I mean, everyone has a hard time admitting when they’re wrong about stuff, and for all of that to come out publicly, it can be embarrassing. To have the experience of, Wow, I was really off mark there, or I wasn’t looking at the big picture, or I was inconsiderate. I’m also a person.” Something she’s been trying to learn is when to say things and when not to – “recognising when it’s not your turn to speak… I can be reactive. I can be impatient. That doesn’t mix that great with self-awareness.”
Why she shouldn’t be expected to say the right thing all the time: “I don’t think actors have obligations to have a public role in society. Some people want to, but the idea that you’re obligated to because you’re in the public eye is unfair. You didn’t choose to be a politician, you’re an actor. Your job is to reflect our experience to ourselves; your job is to be a mirror for an audience, to be able to have an empathetic experience through art. That is what your job is. Whatever my political views are, all that stuff, I feel most successful when people can sit in a theatre or at home and disappear into a story or a performance and see pieces of themselves, or are able to connect with themselves through this experience of watching this performance or story or interaction between actors or whatever it is. And they’re affected by it and they’re thinking about it, and they feel something. You know? They have an emotional reaction to it – good, bad, uncomfortable, validating, whatever. That’s my job. The other stuff is not my job.”
On Joe Biden’s electoral victory: “You could hear people losing their minds outside, and I just cried. It was a pretty crazy reaction. Oh my God, it’s over. It felt like the end of a war, you know? I said to Colin, it feels like when your life is falling apart and an older person, your parent’s friend or your uncle, is like, ‘It’s going to be OK.’ And you’re like, ‘Aaargh!’”
Working during the pandemic: “I just can’t work. I don’t think the conditions that are required to work right now are conditions that I could work comfortably under. I’d rather wait until I could work in an environment where we can be connected to one another.” She checks herself. “I know people are just happy to have a job. Fortunately, I don’t have that urgency.”
“I mean, everyone has a hard time admitting when they’re wrong about stuff, and for all of that to come out publicly, it can be embarrassing.” She’s acting like it happened to someone else! That’s cracking me up for some reason. It “came out publicly” because she said ALL of that sh-t on the record, in magazine interviews. It wasn’t like someone published her diary full of controversial opinions! As for “Wow, I was really off mark there, or I wasn’t looking at the big picture, or I was inconsiderate. I’m also a person” – she literally can’t even admit that she was far off-base without immediately – IN THE NEXT SENTENCE – absolving herself because she is merely a person, with a heart and soul and mouth which spews garbage constantly. Bless her heart.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red and Backgrid.
She doesn’t want Black Widow to flop that’s why she’s “apologising. She also wants a sequel.
She’s so self absorbed she doesn’t even realize how hypocritical she sounds.
Scarlett always our here trying to sound smarter than she really is and that is why she has a running case of foot in mouth disease.
She just doesn’t have the intellect or charisma to make the case to move past it.
100% this. She just isn’t as smart as she thinks she is.
The more I hear her talk the more I realize she isn’t very bright. I think her indy roles gave off the impression there might be more going on under the surface but she keeps opening her mouth and ruining that image…
Exactly. Her nose job helped her book work but in person she’s quite normal looking, really short, nothing special. She’s a pretty decent actor in my opinion but there are much more talented and gorgeous ones out there that you can just watch for hours and hours that have that star presence and appeal and are enigmatic. I don’t really get her appeal? Is it the boobs?? When I saw she’s one of the most top paid actresses I couldn’t really believe it. I guess it’s all that Marvel money. Not really a Marvel movie fan but I don’t also consider those true “films”. Lost in Translation was fantastic but Bill Murray carried it. They could’ve cast any hot young doe-eyed blonde and it would’ve worked, IMO! Marriage Story was so try hard and I couldn’t connect with a whiney privileged couple and lack of depth but Driver (phenomenal actor)carried that entirely.
‘Fraid that’s true.
I never really liked her vibe, and I like it even less now after reading this. The white supremacy character playing issue, the Woody statement, and also the way she responded to a reporter when she was asked a sexist question, I really saw someone with a really bad attitude and a lack of class. Having an opinion is ok, but knowing how to voice it in a mature and considerate way, some people need to get smarter and not think that because they’re famous, it allows them say whatever. Self entitlement is was I hear when I hear her. Barf.
Worst non-apology ever.
She is learning to keep her mouth shut- that is her big lesson.
Apparently she’s still telling Dylan Farrow what a liar she is by supporting Woody Allen.
Maybe she can be a guest on Sharon Osbourne’s next project and they can talk all about how people “misunderstand” them, and how hard their lives are.
There a lot of white women in Hollywood (and throughout the country) like this, she just might be the most famous. Kristen Bell, Olivia Wilde…these women aren’t trying maliciously to be offensive but they have the entitlement air of them that what they’re trying to say is important so they should be heard over everyone. This type of white feminist, it’s just as dangerous as when men try to speak over women. I’m so annoyed by it, because these women aren’t learning, they’re just fake apologizing and we give them another chance instead of letting a woc get ONE chance.
She’s said a lot of stupid things and comes off as completely unapologetic for it here too. Apparently we should just brush off the things she says because we have “unfair expectations”. Literally nobody in the world asked for her to cape for a child rapist (Woody Allen). She’s utter trash.
In a way she’s right, an actor’s job is to act, not be a politician. Which is fine if you’re doing stuff like Marvel movies. But if you do a role with political/social impact, such as a cis woman playing a transgender person or a person of another race, at this point in history, you are involving yourself in politics and a public role in society. As an actor, especially one who is financially set and well established, I think she needs to be much more thoughtful and considerate of what she’s doing and how it affects others, especially marginalized people.
She’s injected herself into a ton of political events and spoke at the Women’s Rally so im not sure where her line of thinking on this is coming from. Zero self reflection from her.
Excellent point. She just wants the protection of “I’m just an actor” when she does something offensive and gets backlash.
She publicly told James Franco that she wants his times up button back and a few weeks later she went to dinner with Woody Allen. She doesn’t give a f*ck about women’s rights.
@Silver Spot on. The narcissistic tendencies with this woman are incredible. She needs to Stop Talking and just act. Just so your fu**ing job, collect your paycheck and move on. She gets worse as she gets older. I loved her in a Marriage Story. She needs to just do that.
I like her movies- that’s her job. People are too quick to cancel/ridicule/judge people these days. She’s an actress who clearly isn’t into politics and speaks from her point of view. I don’t have to agree with it, if she was a close person in my life I might make a mention to debate some topics but in the end I’m not going to be obnoxious, cancel them, ect.
She IS into politics and speaks about it all the time. If she doesn’t want people expecting decently researched and nuanced viewpoints from her then she could choose to NOT expound on things that nobody asked her for her views on in the first place.
She gets on a soapbox and even targets other actors yet here claims she can’t be expected to be held responsible for it.
Love her. Also totally get what she’s saying, about being blunt sometimes. IMHO it’s probably because we are scorpios.
I still really like her as actress and can’t relate to her having the platform she has in terms of airing all of her personal opinions on things. I hate when she has interview like this because I can’t help but lose a little love for ScarJo each time 🙁
Maybe instead of learning to play the guitar she should have learned how to not be an ignorant, self-satisfied a-hole. Maybe if she doesn’t think actors should be political then she shouldn’t insert herself into political conversations by commenting publicly on topics she knows nothing about, nor should she accept roles that are inherently political if she doesn’t care to do the work to actually understand the perspective of the real people behind the role she’s trying to portray. Newsflash: if you don’t educate yourself on the subject, whatever it may be, then it doesn’t matter how good an actor you are; your portrayal will be hollow, false, and sometimes actually harmful. You can’t inspire an “empathetic experience through art” if your portrayal is your own vapid fun-house mirror interpretation of reality; you’re only inspiring further warped views and responses.
“I mean, everyone has a hard time admitting when they’re wrong about stuff, and for all of that to come out publicly, it can be embarrassing.”
Notice that she’s more concerned about how “embarrassing” these controversies are instead of being concerned about how her choices and comments are hurting others, like Dylan Farrow, trans people, or people of color in the film industry.
She’s so overrated and overhyped and I can’t stand her faux feminism. I really hope the Black Widow movie will be her last time playing Natasha Romanoff. Her portrait of her is terrible.
Since she doesn’t believe Dylan, I guess she’d also be cool with it if her current husband leaves her in 10+ years to be with her daughter?
“ Since she doesn’t believe Dylan, I guess she’d also be cool with it if her current husband leaves her in 10+ years to be with her daughter?”
THANK YOU
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
You know, word on the street is that Emily Blunt was originally supposed to play BW but she had a scheduling conflict. EB would have been an incredible Natasha… Really makes you wonder what might have been.
Huh. I dont know that I knew she had a daughter. I’m trying to remember if I had ever heard that, lol.
You know how some celebrities you just dont like? There’s just a vibe of theirs that you dont like? She’s one of mine (her and Emma Stone.) I dont know why, they’re just not my cup of tea. (I also feel this way about Ryan Reynolds and a few others. I dont actively hate them, they just bug me lol.)
We’re watching the Marvel movies in story order and I’m gradually coming around to her as Black Widow, but I’m still not that into the character, I dont have a lot of interest in the origin story.
I don’t have a strong opinion about SJ because I haven’t watched one of her movies in years. I am not into the Marvel movies. I think I saw part of “Lucy.” The celebrity who bugs me is Gwyneth Paltrow. There are a couple of more minor British ones who get on my nerves, mainly Lily James and to some degree Felicity Jones, the latter mainly because she once somehow got the SNL host gig and was really bad at it. I also can’t stand Brad Pitt.
Remember when she was called out by Oxfam for her sponsorship with Sodastream and their human rights violations against Palestinians? Instead of feeling an ounce of sympathy for another human being in the occupied West Bank, she was like: F U Oxfam! And she dropped her role as an Oxfam ambassador to keep her sponsorship for freaking soda water. Good to see she’s still a jacka$$
I personally do not find her to be a versatile actress. She doesn’t seem to be able to stretch her self and bring her characters to life. That is all I had to say.
Well at least she’s aware that she’s NOT self-aware. Lol.
ScarJo is the quintessential privileged white woman who honestly doesn’t get or care to get anything that doesn’t directly affect HER.
The thing is scarjo isn’t interesting or funny, she is pure style over substance. She has many of the affectations of a “cool girl” “interesting girl” “not like those other girls girl” but all of it is shallow and superficial and it’s obvious there is no THERE there. It’s empty.
I feel like she is lucky she came up during the Paris Hilton age because it made her seem smarter than she actually is. In her head she is a Charlize Theron. Someone who has said and done stupid things in the past because she is a celeb but still comes off as cool and interesting especially for a celeb. It’s why I can’t do anything more than laugh and roll my eyes when she says shit. It’s also why I find the idea of scarjo fascinating. Her idea of herself is so far away from the reality and yet she will probably never become aware of that because she is famous. She will always think of herself as cool and interesting and smarter and better than the other girls. She will walk away from this interview feeling she has taken accountability of her actions and that she is a smart feminist EXCEPT like all her interviews she comes across as the complete opposite. She is one of my fav examples of how fame and wealth distort a persons ability to be self aware and let’s mediocre people think they are the best at everything. Many celebs are like this but she does it better than most.
If you’re constantly offending someone, it’s not them, it’s you.
I don’t like her in general, but I didn’t think those answers were bad. On some level, she’s correct. We all make mistakes in our statements but we can all auto-correct privately. And our friends let us adjust even when we’re unlikable. That said, I still don’t want to see her movies manly because I find her boring onscreen. And I’ll probably find her unlikable in another interview, but I don’t think she was incorrect in her estimation of what she feels her job as an actor is to do.
But she can’t act. So all she has is her personality. Which seems to suck.
And her looks. I think that she’s in for a very rude awakening when she ages out of the prime time for Hollywood actresses and the roles start drying up. She doesn’t have the acting ability or charisma to fall back on. Not to wish ill on her, but she doesn’t seem to have a clear understanding of why she is where is she in her career.
That’s a lot of words coming from such a bad actress.
I’ll always wonder what would have been if Emily Blunt hadn’t had a conflict. Perhaps if she could have imagined what the role was going to turn into (Scarjo first appeared in Ironman 1 so no way anyone could have known) she would have made haste to clear her schedule. I don’t know how Emily feels about it, but for me it’s a loss.
I’ve tried so many times because I truly always want to support women, but I just can’t deal with this lady. You can try and explain this, or give her a break on that, but in the end? She’s a massively unlikeable ahole, and that’s just the way it is.