Historical Figure
Scarlett Johansson
b. 1984
American actress (born 1984)
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Biography
Scarlett Ingrid Johansson is an American actress. Her films as a leading actress have grossed over $15.4 billion worldwide, making her one of the highest-grossing actors in history. Johansson's various accolades include a British Academy Film Award and Tony Award, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards and five Golden Globe Awards.
In Their Own Words (5)
I read a lot of things about myself that aren't true … I've read that I've been with people I've never met. It's nice not to have any attachment, but, likewise, it's nice to have a boyfriend. I'm open to that. But it's hard, when you're working constantly, to spend enough time with someone.
As quoted in "Wilde about the girl" in The Sydney Morning Herald (13 June 2005) , 2005
I am very independent. I can look after myself but I still need a lot of love and care.
As quoted in Wise Women : Wit and Wisdom from Some of the World’s Most Extraordinary Women (2013) by Carole McKenzie, p. 137 , 2013
Well you know, I don’t think I have never really seen a film of this genre, where the female characters' sex appeal sort of came second. I mean of course they’re sexy characters. When you have a sexy secretary, or a girl swinging around by her ankles in a cat suit, you know that’s innately sexy, but the fact is that these characters are intelligent. They’re ambitious. They’re motivated and calculated to some degree.
Of her role as Black Widow in Iron Man 2, in Teen Hollywood (3 May 2010) , 2010
A great woman needs a man who will love her and treat her with dignity, but she is so impatient that she gives in to the first man who knocks on her door without caring so much about his attitude towards her.
It's important not to lose who you are in a relationship just because it's nice to cuddle with somebody.
Timeline
The story of Scarlett Johansson, told in moments.
Makes her film debut at nine in North, alongside Elijah Wood. The film is a disaster. She is not. She follows it with Manny & Lo and The Horse Whisperer before she turns 14.
Stars in Lost in Translation opposite Bill Murray. Sofia Coppola directs. Johansson is 18, playing a newlywed adrift in Tokyo. The last line of the film is whispered and inaudible. Nobody knows what Murray says to her. She wins the BAFTA for Best Actress. The same year, she plays Griet in Girl with a Pearl Earring. Two films, two different centuries, two different women. Both lonely.
Releases an album, Anywhere I Lay My Head, covering Tom Waits songs. David Bowie sings on one track. Critics are mixed. She never makes another album. She calls it a one-time experiment.
Debuts as Natasha Romanoff in Iron Man 2. She'll play Black Widow across eight Marvel films over eleven years. The role makes her the highest-grossing actress in box office history. Films she appears in gross over billion.
Debuts on Broadway in Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge. Wins the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play. She's 25. Miller wrote the play in 1955.
Stars in Under the Skin as an alien wearing a human body, driving a van through Glasgow picking up real (non-actor) men. Hidden cameras. No script for the passengers. Jonathan Glazer directs. The film divides critics completely.
Receives two Oscar nominations in the same year: Best Actress for Marriage Story and Best Supporting Actress for Jojo Rabbit. She's a divorcing actress in one and a mother hiding a Jewish girl in Nazi Germany in the other. She doesn't win either.
Black Widow finally gets a solo film, released simultaneously in theaters and on Disney+ Premier Access. Johansson sues Disney, arguing the dual release breaches her contract and costs her box office bonuses. Disney settles. The lawsuit becomes a flashpoint in the debate over streaming vs. theatrical releases.
OpenAI releases a ChatGPT voice called "Sky" that sounds strikingly like her. Johansson says she was asked to voice the system and declined. She hires lawyers. OpenAI pulls the voice. She releases a statement calling it "shocking and angered." The incident becomes the most high-profile AI likeness dispute to date.
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