Cover Story – Scarlett Johansson

True Colours

ACTION STAR, INDIE ACTOR, LIFELONG PERFORMER, ANY LABEL WILL DO, JUST DON’T CALL SCARLETT JOHANSSON “SCARJO”. “IT SOUNDS TACKY,” SHE TOLD GLAMOUR MAGAZINE WHO USED THE TAG IN A COVER STORY ABOUT HER. “IT’S LAZY AND FLIPPANT,” SHE CONTINUED. “AND THERE’S SOMETHING INSULTING ABOUT IT.”

Scarlett Johansson was speaking candidly ahead of the birth of her daughter, Rose Dorothy, now 6, who she shares with her ex, French journalist, Romain Dauriac.

Referring to labels and being described as “the sexiest woman alive” by Esquire Magazine, Johansson railed at the idea of being trapped by a single persona. “When I made Lost in Translation, I was 17. That’s a normal side effect of being a young actor. You’re captured in a certain time of your life, and it’s hard for people to move past that.”

Scarlett Johansson was born in Manhattan, New York in 1984, daughter of a Danish architect and a New Yorker with a background in film production. She has an older sister, Vanessa, also an actress; an older brother, Adrian; and a twin brother, Hunter.

The two-time Academy Award nominee, now 36, was the world’s highest-paid actress in 2018 and 2019, and has featured multiple times on the Forbes Celebrity 100 list. Her films have grossed over $14.3 billion worldwide, making Johansson the highest-grossing actress and ninthhighest-grossing box office star of all time. age and cut her teeth on stage in off Broadway productions. She made her film debut in the fantasy comedy North (1994), and gained early recognition for her roles in Manny & Lo (1996), The Horse Whisperer (1998), and Ghost World (2001).

Johansson shifted to adult roles in 2003 with her performances in Lost in Translation, which won her a BAFTA Award for Best Actress, Girl with a Pearl Earring and The Other Boleyn Girl.

Johansson debuted on Broadway in a 2010 revival of A View from the Bridge, which won her a Tony Award. That same year, Johansson’s foray into Super-Hero status began with the role of Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Iron Man 2.

Science fiction films followed, including Her (2013), Under the Skin (2013), Lucy (2014), Ghost in the Shell (2017), among others. She received critical acclaim and two Academy Award nominations for playing an actress going through a divorce in the drama Marriage Story (2019) and a single mother in Nazi Germany in the satire Jojo Rabbit (2019).

Scarlett with husband Colin Jost

She has been married three times: to Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds from 2008 to 2011; Romain Dauriac, from 2014 to 2017; and comedian Colin Jost who she married in October 2020.

Her love of the full spectrum of stage and screen can be partly attributed to her mum, Melanie, who Johansson said first introduced her to the magic of cinema, in all its genres. “When I was a kid, she showed me all of the movies that she loved,” she recounted in an Interview article. “She loved musicals. She loved all those Elia Kazan movies. And then her passion really lies in those political thrillers from the ‘70s and those Cassavetes movies.”

A keen singer, Johansson cultivated her voice from a very young age, as she explained. “I was a big song-and-dance type of kid,” she said. “I was a major ham, and then puberty hit and I crawled into a dark, cold shell.”

While she struggled to cope with puberty, her parents’ divorce and the challenges that brought, she threw herself into the performing arts and found her way out. Johansson secured an agent and auditioned for parts in commercials. But the husky voice that now distinguishes her, was a barrier to spruiking consumer goods. “I was always terrible at commercials,” she confessed to W magazine. “At the age of 9, I sounded like a whiskey-drinking, chain-smoking fool. Wasn’t going to sell Jell-O with that voice, you know?” Lying about her abilities proved key to winning her first major role in Robert Redford’s The Horse Whisperer. The then 13-year-old told the legendary actor/ director she could ride horses. “I had no horse training whatsoever. I didn’t know what I was doing. I was very unsure of myself, but after taking many lessons and working with the wranglers, I became obsessed with it.”

Though she’s been politically active for most of her life, these days Johansson says she would prefer to keep her views and her activism out of the limelight. “My job is acting, I’m not a politician,” she said, adding that her objective is to “reflect” life experiences to inspire audiences to “have an empathetic experience through art”, connecting with them to make them “feel something”. “They have an emotional reaction to it — good, bad, uncomfortable, validating, whatever. That’s my job,” she said. Her twin brother, Hunter is less reticent about being political. Hunter has had small acting roles in some of Scarlett’s films, including Manny & Lo, but politics is his passion, and he worked as a campaign adviser for Barack Obama in 2008 and is energetic in philanthropic work, hosted numerous fundraisers for natural disaster relief.

The twin siblings have a close bond. “He’s the most golden-hearted person,” Johansson told Parade. “I think a lot of people spend their life looking for a partner, someone to be a mirror to reflect upon, to remind them that they’ve lived. You want someone to tell you what he witnessed in your life. My twin brother has always been that for me.” But as for the perks of fame, Hunter can take or leave them, while his twin sister says she picks and chooses. “Unless I’m all dressed up, I don’t think about how I look, and people don’t comment to me on how I look any more than the average person. I live such a low-key lifestyle that it would be bizarre to hear ‘You’re beautiful!’ constantly. I don’t want to think what that might do to a person. “The way you look in film is not always about beauty – it’s about projecting a personality. There’s not as much pressure to be beautiful as there would be if I were in the fashion world.”

Living in Paris in 2019 with Dauriac her fiancé at the time, Johansson said she enjoyed the French obsession with fashion, but still yearned for the freedom of NYC. at what you’re wearing: You have an audience, you know? New York is about street style that’s functional. A Paris look is not functional! It doesn’t matter if your shoes are comfortable. In New York you can still wear your Nikes. In Paris, you suck it up. You hobble around.”

After a delay of a year due to COVID-19, Johansson is as eager as her fans to experience the world premiere of her latest Marvel film and first as its heroine, Black Widow.

The much-anticipated film, directed by Cate Shortland, reprises the role of Natasha Romanoff, better known as Black Widow, and delves into her past, her history as a spy and the string of broken relationships left in her wake long before she became an Avenger.

“I think this film in particular is very much reflective of what’s going on in regards to the Time’s Up movement and the #MeToo movement,” said Johansson. “It would be such a miss if we didn’t address that stuff, if this film didn’t take that head-on. I think, particularly for Cate, it was so important for her to make a movie about women who are helping other women, who lift other women up out of a very difficult situation. Someone asked me if Natasha was a feminist. Of course, she is; it’s obvious.”

Marvel Studios’ Black Widow releases in cinemas July 8 2021.