Scarlett Johansson She’s getting candid about working as a young woman in Hollywood in the early 2000s. In a recent interview, the actress detailed how the industry discriminated against women based on their looks. The two-time Academy Award nominee is much more excited to see women getting empowering roles now than she was in her 20s.
Scarlett Johansson remembers a tough time
The Oscar-nominated actress, who scored her breakout roles in 2003’s ‘Lost in Translation’ and ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring,’ told CBS Sunday Morning in a recent interview that it was a “really tough time.” “It was tough. There was a lot about the way women looked,” explains Johansson. “At that time, what was offered to women my age, in terms of acting roles or opportunities, was much slimmer than it is now.“
Scarlett Johansson is happy to see women in empowering roles
More than two decades later, the Jurassic World: Rebirth star is happy to see “much more empowering roles available” to young women compared to her 20s when she was “Slim Pickens” in her early days. “You’d be really pigeonholed and offered the same roles. She’d be like the other woman, or the side piece, the bombshell,” she recalled. “That was the dominant archetype at that age.“
Taking a break from Hollywood helped Scarlett Johansson
Johansson found solace in the New York theater scene by making typefaces. Taking a break from Hollywood taught her to wait for the “right role” instead of succumbing to the pressure to “work constantly.” “It’s something I’ve learned over time, but it’s difficult,” he explained. “Once you start working, you really feel like every job is going to be your last and if you get opportunities to work, you have to keep taking them. Even if they are not as varied as the jobs that really make you happy.’ he continued “Every actor feels that way, because they’re very competitive, and I think once you get the spotlight, you want to keep it on you. I mean, that’s the instinct I think for a young actor, or any actor.”After making her directorial debut with last year’s ‘Eleanor the Great’, Johansson will be seen reuniting with Adam Driver in James Gray’s ‘Paper Tiger’.
