How did Scarlett Johansson become so controversial? “I’ve made a career out of it”
In theory, the highest-paid and top-grossing actors in Hollywood should be the least controversial, since audiences aren’t always inclined to show up in their droves to catch the latest release from someone who’s become synonymous with bad buzz. And yet, Scarlett Johansson has bucked the trend.
The two-time Academy Award nominee has been anointed as the highest-grossing leading actor in cinema history, with her top-billed turns in various blockbusters elevating her career box office beyond $15 million, making her the only performer to have crossed that impressive threshold.
Of course, you can put an asterisk next to it if you want, since most of those films hailed from her decade-long tenure as the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Scarlett Johansson, especially when Robert Downey Jr was the first-billed name in the cast in five of them. Regardless, in total, her cumulative earnings are enough to make her one of the ten highest-grossing stars of all time, whether it’s leading or supporting roles.
Success and longevity have become second nature for Johansson, who’s been working since the early 1990s, making her feature debut in Rob Reiner’s derided North. However, it hasn’t been plain sailing, with several notable giving the impression that she’s more inclined to a controversial moment than most of her A-list peers.
“Yeah, I’ve made a career out of it,” she admitted to The Gentlewoman. “I’m going to have opinions about things, because that’s just who I am. I mean, everyone has a hard time admitting when they’re wrong about stuff, and for all that to come out publicly, it can be embarrassing.”
Whitewashing accusations surrounded the announcement that she’d be playing the lead role in 2017’s The Ghost in the Shell, and the backlash never truly subsided. A late-stage twist arguably made those issues even worse and more pronounced, and the only thing people remember about the live-action manga adaptation was the negativity that constantly swirled around its lead.
In the fallout from the Harvey Weinstein scandal, several actors revealed that the disgraced mogul had pressured them into wearing red carpet outfits designed by his wife, Georgina Chapman. Although she filed for divorce in October 2017, the optics of Johansson being the first major Hollywood personality to wear one of her designs in public seven months later weren’t lost on a harsh and unforgiving internet.
Things reached their pinnacle with the Rub & Tug incident, though, with Johansson agreeing to play a transgender man, Duane ‘Tex’ Gill, in a biopic. She was initially defiant about the project before acknowledging that it was “mishandled” and “tone-deaf” for her to claim that “should be allowed to play any person, or any tree, or any animal because that is my job and the requirements of my job.”
Suing Disney wasn’t controversial, to be fair, with Johansson’s legal battle against one of the most powerful conglomerates in popular culture being commended by many. On the other hand, defending Woody Allen on multiple occasions over a number of years was not, with the filmmaker continuing to be disowned and discarded by many of the people he’s worked with.
Johansson is nowhere near being one of cinema’s most controversial stars ever, but if she’s self-aware enough to admit that it’s the habit of a professional lifetime, she knows that there’s been more than enough smoke to start a few fires.
