In a new interview, Scarlett Johansson acknowledges that she’s courted controversy, mostly through the rude way she’s defended her choices to star in films that have been criticized for their portrayals of people who have long been marginalized by Hollywood.
“Yeah, I’ve made a career out of (controversy),” the ‘Black Widow’ star said during an interview with British publication The Gentlewoman. Johansson, 36, also remains one of the few remaining stars to continue supporting Woody Allen.
While Johansson said she was going to voice her opinions, “because that’s who I am,” she also admitted that she hasn’t always expressed herself in the best possible way.
“I mean, everyone has a hard time admitting when they’re wrong about things, and for all of that to come out publicly, it can be embarrassing,” Johansson told The Gentlewoman. “To have the experience of, ‘Wow, I was really off the mark there, or I wasn’t looking at the big picture, or I was inconsiderate.’ I am also a person.
Johansson embarrassed herself when she became one of the most prominent examples of Hollywood’s long whitewashing history with her starring role in “Ghost in the Shell.” In the 2017 action film, based on a Japanese manga, she played a major, an engineered body housing the brain of a dead Japanese woman. Fans of the original manga and advocates for Asian actors in Hollywood have argued that a Japanese actress should have been cast in the role.
Johansson tried to defend the role of Major by essentially saying his character was raceless. “I would never try to play against someone of a different race, obviously,” Johansson said. The film ended up blowing up at the box office, grossing just $20 million its first weekend on a budget of $110. For observers, the film’s weak performance was another sign that whitewashing — the casting of white performers in Asian roles — had become socially inappropriate and bad for the bottom line.
Johansson sparked more controversy in 2018 for another socially inappropriate move. She faced criticism in the LGBTQ community for being cast in “Rub and Tug,” playing a real-life trans man who ran a massage parlor empire in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the 1970s.
Unfortunately, Johansson responded to criticism in a way that turned out to be cocky. She also seemed oblivious to how audiences had begun to lose their taste for even acclaimed cisgender actors, such as Oscar-winning actor Jared Leto, Emmy winner Jeffrey Tambor and Academy Award nominee Felicity Huffman, playing transgender women in “Dallas Buyers Club”, “Transparent”, and “Transamerica”, respectively. At the time, Johansson said via his rep, “Tell them they can be directed to Jeffrey Tambor, Jared Leto and Felicity Huffman’s reps for comment.”
Johansson eventually dropped “Rub and Tug”, acknowledging its insensitivity. In a statement, she said: “Our cultural understanding of transgender people continues to grow, and I’ve learned a lot from the community since my first statement about my casting and realized it was insensitive. I’ve learned a lot. of admiration and love for the trans community and I am grateful that the conversation about inclusivity in Hollywood continues.
Johansson, however, hasn’t given up on his support for Woody Allen, at least not publicly. Allen has long faced allegations that he molested his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow when she was 2 years old. These 1992 allegations were revisited in a recent HBO documentary “Allen v. Farrow.”
Johansson told The Hollywood Reporter in 2019, “I love Woody. I believe him and would work with him anytime. Johansson was Allen’s muse in the mid-’00s as a star of ‘Scoop,'” Vicky Cristina Barcelona” and “Match Point”, for which she earned a Golden Globe nomination.
Johansson’s statement was condemned by Dylan Farrow, who tweeted that the actress’ support for Allen did not match her support for the Times Up movement. The Times Up and “MeToo” movements were sparked by reports of widespread sexual abuse and harassment by Harvey Weinstein and other powerful men in Hollywood.
“Scarlett still has a long way to go to understand the issue she claims to be championing,” tweeted Dylan Farrow.
Johansson did not address her support for Allen or details of other complaints against her in her interview with The Gentlewoman. She only said she was trying to learn when to say things and when not to — “recognize when it’s not your turn to speak.”
“I can be responsive,” admitted Johansson, who is married to ‘Saturday Night Live’ star Colin Jost. “I can be impatient. It doesn’t mix well with self-awareness.
But she also pushed back against the idea that being a famous actress entailed additional political and social responsibilities.
“Some people want (to have a public role in society),” Johansson said. “The idea that you are obligated because you are in the public eye is unfair. You didn’t choose to be a politician, you are an actor. Regardless of my political views, all that stuff, I feel better when people can sit in a theater or at home and disappear into a story or a show and see pieces of themselves. …It’s my job. Other things are not my job.