Once upon a time, all people saw when they looked at Scarlett Johansson was sex.
Typecast in early adulthood as a sexy bombshell – “every man’s fantasy” was the echo that followed her – it took years for the talented star to emerge from the stereotype to become the lauded actress she is today.
Now, with two Oscar nominations in the same year – one for Best Actress in the heartbreaking Marriage Story, the other for Best Supporting Actress in Kiwi director Taika Waititi’s offbeat satire Jojo Rabbit – it’s most certainly Scarlett’s time to shine.
“When I was working in my early 20s and even my late teens, I felt that I got somehow typecast as hypersexualised, which I guess at the time seemed okay to everyone – it was another time – even though it wasn’t part of my own narrative,” she says.
“It was kind of crafted for me by probably a bunch of dudes in the industry… It was really difficult for me to try and figure out how to get out of being an ingénue or ‘other woman’, because it was never anything that I had intended.”
For a young woman, Scarlett (35) is already a veteran of the entertainment industry, having made her film debut at the tender age of nine. She found success as a child actress before transitioning to adult roles in hits such as Lost in Translation and Girl with a Pearl Earring.
This story is from the January 27, 2020 edition of New Zealand Woman's Weekly.
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This story is from the January 27, 2020 edition of New Zealand Woman's Weekly.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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