Scarlett Johansson gave an interview to the “Table for Two with Bruce Bozzi” podcast recently. She spoke about the early days of her career, when she was transitioning from a child star to a young woman. In her teens and early 20s, ScarJo got several “sexy” roles, roles where she played the femme fatale or where she was paired with older men, or where she was simply supposed to be playing an older character. She was typecast back then on-screen and in real life and there were definitely people positioning her that way in the industry, as a sexy young starlet taking certain kinds of roles. Now ScarJo says she felt like she was being “groomed” for that.
Scarlett Johansson admitted on a recent episode of the “Table for Two with Bruce Bozzi” podcast that she felt groomed into becoming a “bombshell” actor during the early part of her career. With roles in films such as “Lost in Translation,” “Girl With the Pearl Earring” and “Match Point,” the Oscar nominee continuously found herself playing the object of male desire during a period of time when she was trying to cultivate star power in the industry.
“I did ‘Lost in Translation’ and ‘Girl With the Pearl Earring,’ and by that point, I was 18, 19 and I was coming into my own womanhood and learning my own desirability and sexuality,” Johansson said. “I was kind of being groomed, in a way, to be this what you call a bombshell-type actor. I was playing the other woman and the object of desire and I suddenly found myself cornered in this place. I couldn’t get out of it.”
She continued, “It would be easy to sit across from someone in that situation and go, ‘This is working.’ But for that kind of bombshell, you know, that burns bright and quick and then it’s done and you don’t have opportunity beyond that. It was an interesting, weird conundrum to be in but it really came back to working at it and trying to carve a place in different projects and work in great ensembles.”
Johansson reminded listeners that even her Black Widow role in “Iron Man 2” was written as “underdeveloped and over-sexualized” at first. The actor worked with director Jon Favreau and Marvel studios head Kevin Feige to re-work the character into something more progressive. Johansson revealed earlier this year that her constant “hyper-sexualization” in Hollywood led her to think her career was ending.
I think two things can be true at once, which is that there were a lot of men positioning Scarlett to be a “sexy bombshell” and hoping to make her into their next big sex-symbol star AND Scarlett had agency over her career and what roles she took. I mean, it’s not like Girl with the Pearl Earring was a bodice-ripper. Neither was Lost in Translation!! She made the choice to make a trilogy of films with Woody Allen where she was the sex object, she read the script for The Other Boleyn Girl and thought “sure!” I mean, I’m all for analyzing our past careers and professional choices and I think it’s useful to reexamine and adapt our standards and beliefs and all of that – but it does feel like she’s acting as if she had zero agency for a decade??
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I loved Lost in Translation, and like Sofia Coppola’s aesthetic and work overall, but the shot of ScarJo’s butt felt unnecessary even exploitative. I doubt that was fully Scarjo’s choice and I doubt a young Scarjo would question the direction. I remember Sofia Coppola had an artsy explanation for it, but I still felt bad for Scarjo, esp as she was still really young…
Scarlett Johansen (sp?) is a stupid smug jerk. Ever since she took that role of the anime character that absolutely should have gone to an Asian woman…….. 😡
It’s called typecasting, not grooming. Can we not use a term used to describe adults trying to manipulate children and teens into complying with abuse to describe the career path of one of the hightest paid actors? WTF? Was she abused? It doesn’t sound like it. Was she frustrated and not entirely happy with what she was offered? Probably. Was she too young for that damn Bill Murray movie? I think so. But unless she is leaving out important facts, this isn’t grooming.
Yep, I agree with two things can be true at once. Let’s not forget Match Point with Woody Allen.
Hopefully, this examination of her early career choices will influence the next generation of both actors and actresses to be concious of being typecast in “bomshell/hottie” roles.
I always want to help Scarlett Johansson get out of her own way when she talks like this. Because she’s correct that very few women in the industry have enough power to truly dictate the direction of their career, even today. Certainly not as a teenager and even less so 20 years ago.
The more you learn about the sleaziness of Hollywood at all levels, it’s a wonder ANYONE gets out unscathed, much less women and children.
Women like her, one of the few who DO now have that power to influence change, could do some good for an industry that does a lot of damage. It’s a shame that she doesn’t articulate herself as part of the problem and part of the solution very well.
I hate the way people like SJ are over-using and mis-using “groom” now, which only serves to diminish the victims of *actual* grooming.
Good point.
Yeah, not grooming. She was making the choice to audition for roles written for women years older than she was at the time. She chose to make the jump from child actress by taking fully adult roles, rather than just aging into playing college students.
She fought for these roles, she wasn’t tricked into them. I’m sure it wasn’t always easy, but this is just ridiculous.
I don’t think this is an appropriate use of the word “grooming” – if she was being offered these sexy roles at 14 or 15, yes. But this is a very specific term that refers to the way abusers manipulate child victims, and it feels like it’s being used for shock value here.
I support any actor looking back and taking stock of what roles they should and shouldn’t have taken, and maybe it’s only occuring to her in retrospect how many roles depended on her being a “bombshell”. If we compare her to like, Emily Blunt, who is around the same age, the body of work doesn’t look that different – some early romcoms, period pieces, action. I think the difference is Blunt has more comedic/ family films, whereas SJ has opted more for dramas outside of Marvel. This would be an interesting conversation, but it doesn’t sound like SJ has gained any more introspection than when she talked about playing a tree. She just doesn’t want to get it.
Oh. See, I was startled because this IS the actual meaning of being “groomed,” and she is using it correctly (“to prepare or train for a particular purpose or activity”). Steven Yeun has talked about the fact that he was groomed from a young age to be a k-pop idol. Before the popular consciousness became preoccupied with predatory grooming as a type of contemporary moral panic, the word already had a negative connotation because *animals* are groomed (i.e. some horses are groomed for racing), so the word itself suggests a certain type of dehumanization even when it is being used in a “neutral” way.
She’s also *right*…! Pre-Lost in Translation, her roles as a minor in movies like Ghost World and The Man Who Wasn’t There were all “jailbait” characters, which didn’t bother me at the time because I was right around the same age, but definitely do bother me as an adult. She was a curvy kid, and it’s gross that she was treated like a worldly adult as a result. (Her role in the Coen Bros’ Man Who Wasn’t There — repeating “but I *want* to!” and diving into Billy Bob Thornton’s lap — is downright exploitative, and it makes my skin crawl now.)
Yeah I’m kind of shocked at some responses here. People don’t like her and that’s affecting opinions. But she was absolutely sex bombed. Chiefly by woody. She’s been a defender but isn’t that part of the grooming? I don’t think she’s quite at the mental or emotional place of calling him out yet because her career did benefit immensely but she was also exploited. You can look at all kinds of her movies— The Island, Perfect Score, etc and see parts of what she’s talking about. The sheer underwear in Lost in Translation. The Allen films.
re: “She’s been a defender but isn’t that part of the grooming?” 100% agreed — you have to “stay grateful” and play the game, because if you speak out and bite the hand that feeds you, it WILL all be taken away. That’s how the patriarchy operates in a nutshell, isn’t it? It pits people against one another for the “honor” of being abused, basically. It’s crazymaking.
I was wrong when I said that her early roles didn’t bother me. They absolutely did but, because of internalized sexism, I probably thought SHE was gross for taking those parts — as opposed to the lecherous adult men who kept putting a 15- or 16-year old in those positions. It’s hard to root for her because she is a “cool girl” who really “leaned in” and “got hers” but, again, she isn’t wrong here. I guess it’s kind of heartening that she’s unpacking the ways in which she’s a product of a really insidious time and place.
Before the popular consciousness became preoccupied with predatory grooming as a type of contemporary moral panic
Are you kidding???
Typecast? Maybe. GROOMED? No. And it does a disservice to victims of sexual abuse to use the term so loosely.
I saw her as a unique type, but then she got her mandatory Hollywood nose job, started doing snooze action pics, and I lost interest.