The same might be said of Scarlett Johansson, Wes Anderson’s most recent leading woman. The director has collaborated with enough A-list talent to fill a Met Gala, including Cate Blanchett, George Clooney, and Meryl Streep, but he admits that star power remains a bit of a mystery.
In his movie “Asteroid City,” which stars Scarlett Johansson as a brilliant 1950s cinema legend, the filmmaker believes he has cracked the code: “Scarlett’s voice is so expressive and intriguing. It is, in my opinion, her best asset.
Scarlett Johansson has grown more at ease raising that voice when she believes she has been treated unfairly as her celebrity has grown. She surprised the business by entering the ring with Disney, the most influential company in Hollywood, in July 2021, as one example.
Shortly after the studio’s Marvel prequel ‘Black Widow’ hit theatres, the actress, who was confined to her Upper East Side apartment and only days away from giving birth to Cosmo, her second child, launched an explosive lawsuit against the company.
Scarlett Johansson team had been working behind the scenes for the past six months to pressure the studio to fulfil the millions of dollars in backend pay she would forfeit when “Black Widow” was simultaneously distributed on Disney+ and in theatres as the epidemic raged.
Given that her contract stipulated that the “Avengers” spinoff be solely released in theatres, the violation was obvious. In an effort to boost its stock price, Disney, which was then headed by CEO Bob Chapek, said that “Black Widow” brought in more than $60 million in worldwide sales for Disney+ Premier Access.
The studio removed its protective covering in reaction to the lawsuit and issued a jaw-dropping statement that criticised Scarlett Johansson for her “callous disregard for the horrific and prolonged global effects of the COVID-19 pandemic” and casually disclosed her closely-guarded $20 million upfront salary.
According to all appearances, the studio had launched war on an actress who played Russian assassin Natasha Romanoff in eight of its Marvel tentpoles, beginning with 2010’s “Iron Man 2,” and who is also a corporate super fan, the sort that just celebrated Christmas at Disney World with a party of 15 pals.
On an April afternoon in New York City, as Scarlett Johansson and I sit next to one other, she flinches at the thought of Disney’s harsh remark, her brilliant grin fading. “I felt depressed and let down. mainly depressing,” she adds.
We were all alone at the time, and we were only just beginning to emerge a little. In a strange sense, it was perfect timing that I was also quite pregnant. Your entire focus is now focused on this wonder of life. I therefore had the best diversion ever, and shortly after, I gave birth to a lovely child.
Bryan Lourd, Scarlett Johansson agent, was everything but preoccupied. He remembers, “I lost my mind and said, ‘How dare you make it seem like she’s not worth this money or that she somehow hasn’t earned it?'” “She and I had a pretty similar understanding of what this was. She also had the conviction to let me defend myself.
Many individuals wouldn’t act in such manner. She did so in part because she believed that, given the situation she was in, she had a duty to not just herself but also to those who were dealing with the shift.
When Cosmo started smiling for the first time two months later, Scarlett Johansson and Disney settled their legal dispute. The agreement’s terms were not made public, although Scarlett Johansson allegedly received a payoff that exceeded $40 million.
Burt Lancaster, Kevin Costner, and Sylvester Stallone are just a few of the Hollywood actors who have successfully sued studios over the industry’s history; the only notable exceptions are Olivia de Havilland and Elizabeth Taylor. Taylor sued Fox in 1964 for underpaying him for the film “Cleopatra,” and the case was resolved for $7 million, or about $60 million in today’s currency.
Scarlett Johansson , however, made history by standing up to a titan in the streaming era, and the impact of her lawsuit may still be felt in Hollywood and beyond as wealthy companies exploit the epidemic as an excuse to raise labour costs. In some respects, the conflict between Johansson and the media powerhouse serves as a prelude to the writers strike that is currently rocking the business.
“I couldn’t even enter a restaurant without hearing someone congratulate me. “Be strong for yourself,” she exhorts. “I could see it had a greater effect. I received assistance from complete strangers who had no stake in the outcome.
Amazingly, any resentment between Disney and Scarlett Johansson has vanished. On the upcoming “Tower of Terror,” which is based on its well-known theme park attraction and has Taika Waititi attached to helm, the 38-year-old actress is still working with the studio.
She still makes at least ten trips to Disney World each year, and she gets excited while discussing the studio’s motion pictures. The two years her family spent living in Florida are what gave rise to the fascination.
I really love the Disney parks, and we had yearly passes to Disney World. It was also a tremendous moment for Disney animation while I was growing up, with films like “The Little Mermaid,” “Aladdin,” and “Lion King” featuring fantastic soundtracks. I’ll be pre-purchasing tickets for “The Little Mermaid,” for instance.
She supports her reputation as a supporter of movie theatres by saying, “I actually need to text my sister about that,” even if it is absurd to think that Scarlett Johansson would use Fandango like the rest of us.
Scarlett Johansson has recently been contributing her voice to the dramatic Cannes premiere of “Asteroid City.” The historical movie will have its global debut during the festival, when she will undoubtedly the toast of the Croisette for her homage to the old-school movie stars (she says to think of Bette Davis).
If a Disney PR genius tried to portray Scarlett Johansson as a hoarding miser, the truth is far different. She enthusiastically worked for two months on the Focus Features movie that was filmed in Spain for a meagre $4,131 a week. She has only made two trips to Cannes since her well praised performance in Woody Allen’s 2005 noir film “Match Point.”
Hollywood’s highest-grossing star, male or female, since Scarlett Johansson signed with CAA’s Lourd just before negotiating her contract for “Iron Man 2” — she only earned the Black Widow part when Emily Blunt withdrew — is now the Black Widow. (To date, her films have brought in $14.52 billion globally.)
She also has the ability to carry an independent picture on her own, as she did with the 2014 sci-fi action movie “Lucy,” which made $459 million worldwide despite not having any recognisable IP. The native New Yorker now often earns $20 million for big studio productions like the upcoming Apple comedy “Project Artemis,” in which she co-stars with Channing Tatum.
Scarlett Johansson has become the most sought-after actress because to her collaborations with directors like Christopher Nolan and the Coen brothers as well as her Oscar nominations for “Marriage Story” by Noah Baumbach and “Jojo Rabbit” by Taika Waititi. The audience has been endlessly captivated by her because of her desire to confront the current quo, career risks and all.
She’s really strong and evolved, and I appreciate that she’s never engaged in those types of internal debates or discussions about who she is, adds Lourd. Not that she was born sure or anything like that, of course. She still needs a lot of improvement. However, she is adamant about her worth, both emotionally and professionally.
Scarlett Johansson, dressed in brown corduroys and a short-sleeved cashmere jumper on this gloomy afternoon, has just ended a picture session and, with the aid of some makeup removal, has rapidly transformed from movie star splendour to utilitarian chic. In person, she comes out as being quite at ease—even airy.
She can’t let go of certain things, though: She squats down to pick up a perfectly nice pint of strawberries that someone has dropped on the floor of her changing area and declares, “They don’t belong there.” On the counter in front of her, she places the fruit.
After donning a rust-colored baseball cap over her blonde hair, she slumps onto an uncomfortable director’s chair with her feet protruding from a pair of dirty white Nikes and starts to tell the tale of how she came to be.
Scarlett Johansson , who was born into a bohemian Manhattan family three minutes before her twin brother Hunter, spent her early years living in small Greenwich Village homes that couldn’t hold her along with her parents and two other brothers. (She also has a younger adoptive sister and an older half-brother.)
“I required a lot of consideration. ‘Look at me,’ you say. When asked about her early desire to perform, she responds, “What about look at me today. “I believe that was a significant motivator.
I was a bit of a ham and simply really enjoyed making up stories. I cherished dancing and singing. All of the Golden Age films and Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals were shown to me by my mother. When she had the money, she would take us to Broadway shows.
We would wait in the queue for discounted tickets before heading to a performance.
Early success was achieved. In the 1993 Off Broadway production “Sophistry,” she made her stage debut at the age of 9 opposite Ethan Hawke. “I remember having a total huge crush on Ethan at the time because he was like everything in that era,” the speaker recalls.
Lourd remembers being struck by the tween actress’ presence as he sat in the 90-seat theatre with a noisy air conditioner that producer Jason Blum turned on and off in between scenes. He admits, “I was smitten,” even though he didn’t start working with her for another 15 years. She was cast in a minor role in Rob Reiner’s “North” the same year, and all she remembers is having “a crush on Elijah Wood.”
She shattered people’s hearts four years later as a wounded girl in Robert Redford’s “The Horse Whisperer.” By the age of 17, she was filming “Lost in Translation” with Bill Murray on location in Tokyo.
Though it’s been said that Scarlett Johansson had a terrible experience on Coppola’s set, Scarlett Johansson disputes that assertion. “It wasn’t awful. Being young and separated from my high school lover made it difficult. It was really hard labour, and I felt a little lonely there,” she claims. “Now that I think about it, it all felt like jet lag.”
Despite a challenging production, the movie was a critical darling, pushing Scarlett Johansson to “It” girl stardom and winning her a BAFTA and Golden Globe nomination for best actress. However, there was a drawback. She claims that the movie shaped her into a bombshell. “It was hard to get out of that pigeonhole,” she adds. “I also worked on films that kind of carried on that story, like ‘He’s Just Not That Into You’. I was unable to advance.
She kept working hard, but she still felt lost. She says, “I was passed over for two roles: the first was in ‘Iron Man 2’ and the second was in Alfonso Cuarón’s ‘Gravity’. “I had been so desperate for the position. The straw that finally broke the camel’s back was kind of that. I felt so disappointed and hopeless. ‘Am I doing the right job?’ sort of thing I was offered work that I found to be incredibly unfulfilling. I believe every Marilyn Monroe script ever was presented to me. I thought, “Is this the end of the road in terms of creativity?
Then destiny took over. Due to a Fox contract, Blunt abruptly withdrew from “Iron Man 2” and was forced to film the quickly forgotten “Gulliver’s Travels.” That made it possible for Scarlett Johansson to take on the character of the Mensa-level intelligent, quick-healing superhuman who was playing a bigger and bigger part in the ever-expanding Marvel world. She didn’t spend much time in that first movie.
In terms of how my role was written, that movie wasn’t going to advance things, but there was possibility for what it might be — a potential for development in later movies, according to the actress.
She started rehearsing for her Tony-winning performance in Arthur Miller’s “A View From the Bridge” not long after filming “Iron Man 2.” She claims that the play gave her a creative and artistic development spurt.
Following that, Scarlett Johansson made a string of audacious movie choices, like portraying a nearly silent extraterrestrial entity in “Under the Skin” and acting as a predecessor to ChatGPT alongside Joaquin Phoenix in “Her.” “Suddenly it was like, ‘I still love this job.’ It also rekindled my enthusiasm for the job. I had less anxiety.
I ask her how she avoided the difficulties of being a young actress as she progresses through her career arc in light of how many talented children fail before reaching maturity. She gives a brief justification. She says, as if the solution is obvious, “You need your parents to set boundaries and hold you accountable and keep you away from, like, weird people.” “I was really fortunate that I had that.”
As she continues, she becomes temporarily puzzled. There’s more to it than just being able to follow the wind. Which direction the wind blows—is that the appropriate expression? “The direction the wind blows”? I’m not sure.
When I get in touch with Scarlett Johansson three days later, she acknowledges that my query caused “an existential angst” and had been bothering her over the weekend. She refers to her husband, “Saturday Night Live” actor Colin Jost, saying, “Actually, I was thinking after we talked, and talking to Colin about it, why some people go that other way.” “I suppose I could have gone the other way just as easily.”
Scarlett Johansson mother requested that her film work take place over the summer when she was growing up so she wouldn’t miss classes. Although such organisation was crucial, it didn’t imply that her life was devoid of disorder. When she was 13, her parents split, leaving her to live largely with her father in New York while her mother relocated to California.
As an adolescent, she adds, “I was thinking about how important my career was to me.” It was something I enjoyed doing and could accomplish. I was securing employment and going on auditions. I worked so hard to advance my career. I wasn’t going to mess this up, especially considering the financial volatility I had experienced growing up. I had to act like a grownup right away since I was put in a very mature environment at a young age. How can I maintain control of this element of my life? was my immediate response.
Scarlett Johansson and Chris Evans originally met on the set of Brian Robbins’ “The Perfect Score” when she was 17 years old. They have since collaborated on eight films together, six of which are blockbusters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He recalls, “I was shocked I was older than her.” Not because of her appearance, but rather because of her composure and intelligence. Scarlett Johansson is regarded as being intelligent above her years by everyone. And she has been doing so ever since she was a teenager.
Therein lies Scarlett Johansson’s duality: She may appear carefree at first, but that façade gradually crumbles to expose compulsive tendencies. “I will spend years working out dialogue, then text a director and say, ‘I figured it out! I learned how to do that scene,” she claims. “Could have used that then,” the filmmaker says. She obviously doesn’t let things slide.
Scarlett Johansson successfully fought to earn as much as her male colleagues Avengers since historically in Hollywood, males have been paid more than women. “My mother has always placed such a high value on that. You need to get paid the same amount for comparable screen time or work, it seemed to be saying. You are important,'” she recalled. In our home, fairness was taken for granted.
Scarlett Johansson, though, has managed to keep the emotional and the professional separate throughout it all. Even if the legal battle with Disney turned heated, she isn’t angry about it since she sued Disney to keep the powerful accountable. I believe it’s because I was able to distinguish between Disney’s business affairs department and their creative team, she claims.
“I’ve had and still have such wonderful working ties with so many creatives there. I firmly believe in Disney’s magic. Because those two things are distinct, I can still enjoy it without letting the callousness of that interaction tarnish my relationship and history with them.
A writers strike is looming on the day of our second interview. Nobody knows for sure if that will truly happen or not. She remarks, “It’s 2:30 on Monday and no one knows anything,” before a strike is officially declared to be in effect. It’s quite unsettling. There is absolutely no information. I keep searching for “writers strike 2023,” but nothing comes up.
Jost, the father of Cosmo and Scarlett Johansson husband of almost three years (she was previously wed to Ryan Reynolds and then French businessman Romain Dauriac, the father of her 8-year-old daughter Rose), is one of the authors who has been impacted). Jost is the member of the family who is most fearful despite being in danger. “My husband’s the least tense person,” she claims. He is really practical. Because they may or may not need to plan a show for Saturday, “SNL” is operating as normal. The season will be over for him if there is a strike.
The principles of both the strike and Scarlett Johansson own conflict with Disney are the same, even if she doesn’t make the apparent connection between the two. Publicly traded entertainment companies continue to place profit margins over people. She is supporting the authors from a distance.
She claims that what they are asking for “doesn’t seem unreasonable.” It would be wonderful to see an agreement reached between the two parties without having to suffer through this enormous, potentially disastrous effect on people’s lives. I’m just puzzled as to why this can’t be resolved. It has been building for a long time—perhaps even years. How did it get at this situation?
After Anderson delivered her the “Asteroid City” script, Scarlett Johansson claims she spoke with him for hours since she has a great admiration for authors. She gave her fictional character Midge Campbell—a part Anderson claims he made for Scarlett Johansson —the same meticulous scrutiny she gives herself.
“Who is this person, I wondered? Why was she so successful at the time? How did she get here? She is a famous actress and singer; what motivated her to go there? Working with Anderson’s usually demanding language, Scarlett Johansson had to respond to these queries. “I admire the rigour of Wes’ restrictions. In some respects, I believe it’s more freeing.
When Scarlett Johansson learned that her “Avengers” co-star Jeremy Renner had been seriously injured while removing his nephew’s car from a snowplough accident in Tahoe in January, she was in the middle of filming “Project Artemis” in Atlanta.
I was so unhappy, she recalls. When the 7-ton snowcat ran over Renner, he shattered more than 30 bones, had acute chest trauma, and sustained orthopaedic injuries. But when the initial days following the incident passed, his outlook got better. We text the Avengers and say, “OK, you defeated us all.
I’m done now. You triumphed, she says. (The text thread has the six original Avengers: Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Robert Downey Jr., Evans, and Renner.) “That’s like authentic superhero material. It’s incredible.
Scarlett Johansson and Evans travelled to Los Angeles a few weeks ago to see Renner, who was struggling to make progress on the protracted path to recovery. Evans describes the mood when the three people assembled. “None at all. Many grins, hugs, and chuckles, he says. Leave it to Jeremy to transform something that may have been awful into something so motivating.
The reunion was more emotional for Scarlett Johansson. “I was genuinely ecstatic to meet him. I wasn’t sure whether I would ever see him again. Not just to see him again, but to observe him flourishing and in such a remarkable state of mind, too,” Johansson enthuses. “He is, in general, a highly spiritual and soulful guy.
And his work demonstrates that. It is audible. He is so rich in depth. And I was simply so relieved to discover that he is funny, full of life, and bright. We had a lot of fun.
Scarlett Johansson admits that her eight-film journey as Black Widow has come to an end, a situation she characterises as “bittersweet.” While some of the Avengers may have regrouped in that rehabilitation chamber.
Of course I’m sad, she replies, “Yeah. The ten years I spent working with Marvel and that incredible ensemble were just wonderful, and I adore the Natasha character. I feel a lot of sympathy for her, and it was incredible to develop that character over so much time.
I also feel pretty pleased about her narrative coming to an end, she adds after a little pause. She left behind a legacy that I believe is quite dignified.
Scarlett Johansson also agrees.
This post was last modified on May 11, 2023 10:03 am
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