Entertainment
Scarlett Johansson says she was ‘groomed’ to play the ‘object of desire’ early in acting career-Rachael O'Connor-Entertainment – Metro
‘I suddenly found myself cornered in this pace, I couldn’t get out of it.’
Scarlett Johansson says she had to fight to get out of being the ‘bombshell’ role early in her career (Picture: Getty Images)
Scarlett Johansson has reflected on the lack of ‘agency’ she had as a young actress and says she was ‘groomed’ to play certain roles.
The acclaimed actress is now Hollywood royalty, having taken on a multitude of different roles, from Marriage Story to JoJo Rabbit, Black Widow to Lost In Translation.
As an Oscar-nominated actor and having been in the industry for decades, at this stage Scarlett is confident in her abilities and the roles she wants to play, however this was not always the way.
Speaking in a new interview, the star reflected on her early roles and says she was essentially ‘groomed’ into being a ‘bombshell’ actress where she was always playing the ‘object of desire.’
Having appeared in The Horse Whisperer and other films in similar roles playing a naive young girl, Scarlett says she ‘kind of became an ingénue.’
She told the Table For Two podcast that ‘young girls’ are ‘really objectified, and that’s just a fact.’
Scarlett says she started out in ‘ingénue’ roles, or naive young girl roles (Picture: Getty Images)
As she became an older teenager and landed parts in the likes of Lost In Translation, Scarlett says she was constantly cast in ‘object of desire’ roles (Picture: WireImage)
Whatever roles directors put women into at the start of their career became a ‘box’ which ‘sets you into this trajectory.’
‘For me it was like I started down this path of being an ingénue, then I did Lost In Translation and Girl With A Pearl Earring, and by that point I was 18, 19, I was coming into my own womanhood and learning my own desirability and sexuality.
‘I think because of that trajectory I had been launched towards I really got stuck in this… I was kind of being groomed, in a way, to be this what you call a bombshell type of actor.
The star says she believes young actresses now have more agency in the roles they want to play (Picture: Getty Images)
‘I was playing the other woman and the object of desire and I suddenly found myself cornered in this pace, I couldn’t get out of it.’
However the Iron Man actress managed to turn her career around, thanks in part to Creative Artists Agency co-chairman Bryan Lourd, the husband of Table For Two host Bruce Bozzi.
She credited Bryan for helping her break out into new roles even though it would be ‘easy’ to keep going while the bombshell acting was ‘working.’
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Scarlett explained that with ‘bombshell’ acting, it ‘burns bright and quick and then it’s done and you don’t have opportunity beyond that.’
Since then, Scarlett has become a household name having appeared in countless films and music videos, and lent her voice to cartoons and vide games.
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