The role that placed Scarlett Johansson’s persona at a crossroads
After rising to prominence in her late teens, Scarlett Johansson became well known for her roles in movies like Ghost World, Lost in Translation, and Girl with a Pearl Earring. Initially steering clear of major blockbusters, Johansson built her career around interesting roles, only to become one of the biggest actors in the world through her entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
She is now the most highly-paid female actor in the world thanks to her role as Natasha Romanoff, otherwise known as Black Widow. Playing the spy for the first time in Iron Man 2 back in 2010, she then reprised the part in several more films, including The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers Endgame, and Black Widow. She has become a fan favourite, known for her fearless nature and agility.
Her role as Black Widow is undoubtedly what she is most well known for, although she hasn’t lost her love for less mainstream cinema. She has worked with some critically acclaimed filmmakers too, like Wes Anderson, Spike Jonze, the Coen brothers, and Jonathan Glazer, proving herself to be a versatile talent. However, it is her work with the latter that is arguably her most experimental and unexpected role to date.
She starred as Laura in Glazer’s Under the Skin in 2013, a sci-fi horror in which her character lures men into a black void. Laura is an alien disguised as a woman who drives around picking up men. She observes humans in all of their complexities – their selflessness and selfishness, their vanity, their empathy. The movie is open to various kinds of interpretations, but many viewers have commented on how the film approaches the way humans interact with one another, how our differences are treated, and what it is that unites us all.
Glazer hoped that casting Johansson – a Hollywood star – in the role would help to expose the project to a wider audience – perhaps those who need to see the movie most. “Scarlett Johansson fans, typically, would be less inclined to see this kind of film, and those inclined to see this kind of film would be less inclined to see Scarlett Johansson films. If people come and see the film because of her, and then when they leave, they’ve got something from the film they didn’t expect to come for, that would be a great thing,” he told HeyUGuys.
There are also feminist undertones, with Laura becoming a domineering figure that lures men rather than the other way around. The film isn’t advocating for violence and death aimed at men, of course; rather, it switches the roles that usually define the male and female experiences and asks men to consider their place in society. This is just one aspect that comes to define the human experience, with Glazer zooming in on the gender politics that affect our day-to-day lives.
Under the Skin is a haunting piece of cinema that has rightly been heralded as one of the best British movies of all time. Yet, when you consider that the project is set in Scotland with a cast of largely non-actors, Johansson is perhaps the last person you would imagine leading the film. Still, it remains one of the greatest performances of her career.
