The movie that changed Scarlett Johansson’s life: “The effects were revolutionary”
Before Scarlett Johansson was even an adult, she had earned acclaim for her performances in several movies now considered cult favourites, like Ghost World and Lost in Translation. She’d already starred in some films as a kid, but it was these parts that proved her to be a talented star who could easily transition into more mature roles.
She continued to appear in well-received movies, like Girl With a Pearl Earring, Match Point, The Prestige, and The Other Boleyn Girl. Johansson has excelled in both period dramas and movies set in the modern-day, cementing herself as a rather versatile star. These days, she is better known by many for starring in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Black Widow, a role she has played in the Captain America movies, the Avengers series, and, of course, Black Widow.
Her performances in the MCU, alongside many other successful movies, have made her the highest-grossing female actor of all time. However, Johansson likes to work between both mainstream blockbusters and more experimental and indie films; it seems as though this ensures her success as a well-respected actor.
When Johansson isn’t portraying Natasha Romanoff, she has appeared as a man-luring alien in the incredible Under the Skin, gone head-to-head with Adam Driver in the emotionally-taxing Marriage Story, and provided her voice to the AI assistant that Joaquin Phoenix’s character falls in love with in Her.
However, it was a big blockbuster that initially sparked Johansson’s love for cinema as a life-changing instrument. When she was around 11 years old, she had the pleasure of seeing a certain Steven Spielberg movie in the cinema, and it blew her away. In an interview with the Oscars, Johansson revealed one of her “earliest memories of going to the theatre because it was super impactful, even though I did go to the theatre a lot when I was very, very young.”
The movie was Jurassic Park, starring Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dern, and Sam Neill. “It was so crazy to see it in the theatre,” she claimed, “the effects were so revolutionary, and they still hold up, I think.” The movie remains a family-friendly favourite for many, whose childhoods were defined by seeing these gigantic dinosaurs on screen, towering over the actors.
Johansson recalled “seeing the brontosaurus for the first time,” which left her “like ‘what?!’.” She added, “I mean, it just felt so real, it was just unbelievable. I think it was the first time I’d ever seen that kind of visual effect.” To a young Johansson, experiencing this was “awesome.”
Jurassic Park featured CGI courtesy of Industrial Light and Magic, the company founded by George Lucas. The effects really were groundbreaking for the time, with life-size animatronic dinosaurs being used alongside the computer-generated effects to make the movie as realistic as possible. For many viewers, especially children, the movie really was terrifying because the dinosaurs were simply so life-like and domineering.
It was a massive success, becoming the highest-grossing movie of all time for several years. Everyone was intrigued by the movie’s sheer scope and impressive use of CGI, and it remains one of Spielberg’s most popular films.
