Cyber Scarlett

JOHANSSON TALKS ACTING, TECH, AND GHOST IN THE SHELL

- Paul French

Science fiction is said to hold a mirror to the present – with stories escorting us into fantasies and futures still rooted in reality. And, if this is true, one might think sci-fiwouldn’t have much staying power – that after each decade we would cast off the old commentary and never give it another glance. However, since Shelley’s Frankenstein in 1818, the genre has been home to classics that, because of their narrative richness or technological foresight, remain relevant today.

Case in point: Ghost in the Shell, a Japanese comic originally published almost 30 years ago, with a story that depicts a world of people both connected and disconnected through their technology, and one in which cyber terrorism is one of the most dominant threats.

Scheduled for release in March of 2017, Paramount’s live action adaptation of the popular manga and anime has already been making headlines, in no small part because of leading star and highest grossing actress of all time, Scarlett Johansson.

The most striking thing about Johansson is her charisma. While not the quality some would cite first, it’s that aura of intelligence, self awareness, and subtlety that makes Johansson more of a classic Hollywood beauty than a momentary bombshell. And, likewise, her filmography reflects an investment in characters more obsessed with quests of personal fulfillment and self-discovery than superficial glamour.

Johansson’s role as The Major in Ghost in the Shell is no different, as beneath the film’s cyber punk action, there’s a deeply character-driven story – one that, Johansson claims, is especially relatable in today’s world.

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