Why did Scarlett Johansson feel "hypersexualized" and "pigeonholed" by the industry at a young age? Find here.
by Ana Walia | Tue, 11 Oct 2022 20:12:36 GMT
Scarlett Johansson talks about being "hyper-sexualized" in the industry at a young age. Image Source: Vox 

Scarlett Johansson talks about being "hyper-sexualized" in the industry at a young age.

During her appearance on Dax Shepard’s "Armchair Expert" podcast’s 500thepisode, Scarlett Johansson addressed that she was hyper-sexualized by the industry at a very young age, which threatened her success.

Scarlett Johansson said that she kind of became objectified and pigeonholed in a way where she felt that she was not getting offers from the makers for the kind of work she wanted to do. The actress said that she kept thinking that people just think that she is 40 years old and that is the reason she stopped being something that was desirable and something she was fighting against.

The actress who went on to get critical success at the age of 19 after she was finalized for Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation, in which she starred opposite Bill Murray in 2003, said that because she thought that everybody thought that she was older and had been acting for a long time, she got kind of pigeonholed into the weird label of hyper-sexualized. Scarlett Johansson added that she almost felt like her career was over and it was like, that is the kind of career one has and there are these roles that one has portrayed on-screen and she kept thinking that this is it.

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Scarlett Johansson shared with Dax Shepard that the runway was not long on that, so it was scary at the time, and added that weirdly she was like, "This is it? Scarlett said that she attributed a lot of that to the fact that people thought that she was much older than her actual age before moving on to explain how the industry landscape has evolved for young women now and how the female characters are written to portray them as more than just beautiful counterparts.

She went on to say that she sees younger actors in their twenties and feels like they are free to be all of these different things, and she appreciates that it is a different time because they are no longer permitted to categorize other actors. Scarlett stated that individuals are more vibrant now, but she still thinks that there is a lot of work that must be done to keep women secure on set and to keep men in power from exploiting young actors.

Scarlett Johansson, best known as Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, stated that we live in a patriarchal society and that she believes there is a fundamental truth of the woman's condition that will always exist, even if those 600 men are not as vigorously aggressive as they would have been a minute ago. She went on to say that it's so ingrained in culture and society that she can't imagine it ever not being present.

Scarlett Johansson still hopes for improvement in the industry for women. Image Source: GQ

Scarlett Johansson finally concluded on the 500th episode of Armchair Expert's podcast that it's crucial to comprehend progress and change when it's truly meaningful, and that it takes two steps forward and two steps back. She went on to say that it will get better and then get worse because it is not finite, and that if someone does not end up leaving room for people to figure it out, then actual progressive change will not occur.

The actress stated that she sometimes feels as if she is trapped between two worlds, where mothers are like women who can use whatever they can to get what they want: feminine wiles, sexuality, anything. She went on to say that her generation is the one who did it, that something doesn't feel right, and that there has to be a better way to deal with it. Scarlett went on to say that there is a generation younger than her who are saying that they don't need to take any of that crap and that this is an interesting place to be in the middle of.

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