The one role Scarlett Johansson never wants to play: “I have no interest”
Scarlett Johansson hasn’t earned her status as one of the highest-grossing actors of all time for no reason. Besides the skills she possesses, she also knows how to pick the right roles, and over the years, she has been in everything from acclaimed movies like Lost in Translation and Under the Skin to major franchise movies like Black Widow and Avengers: Endgame as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
By balancing big blockbusters with more experimental and complex roles (she earned two Oscar nominations in 2020 for performances in the emotionally-charged Marriage Story and Jojo Rabbit), Johansson has found incredible amounts of success. Few genres seem to be off limits for the actor, although there is one role she has no interest in ever playing.
Johansson has played a few famous women throughout her career, such as Mary Boleyn in The Other Boleyn Girl and Janet Leigh in Hitchcock, yet the one iconic figure that many people have long wanted the actor to portray is Marilyn Monroe. The timeless Hollywood icon was more than just an actor and a singer; she came to be one of the most indelible images of American celebrity, immortalised in the art of Andy Warhol and through her unforgettable blonde hair and beauty mark.
When the 2011 film My Week With Marilyn, directed by Simon Curtis, was in production, Johansson was rumoured to star in the leading role, but it inevitably went to Michelle Williams. She earned acclaim for her performance and even walked away with an Academy Award nomination, although she lost out to Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady. While Johansson would’ve surely given a great performance, too, she wasn’t remotely interested in taking on the demanding challenge.
She told USA Today: “There’s a lot there to explore, and I like to watch other people do it, but I have no interest. It’s lovely to be compared to somebody as sort of effervescent and charming and fragile and I think kind of an underrated actor, really… you know, beautiful and everything. But it’s never been one for me.”
Taking on the role of Monroe would have surely been a huge undertaking, and perhaps Johansson wasn’t ready to play someone as iconic, which would’ve undoubtedly led to plenty of scrutiny, no matter how hard she worked. Williams is one of several actors who has played the star, but the most controversial embodiment of Marilyn came in 2022 when Andrew Dominik helmed Blonde, with Ana De Armas portraying the Gentlemen Prefer Blondes star.
The movie was widely criticised for portraying Monroe as a helpless victim of the men around her, with her naked body repeatedly objectified and subject to violence. Decried as distasteful by many, Blonde quickly became proof that biopics are one of the hardest kinds of films to master, and they can easily feel exploitative and cold. Perhaps this is why Johansson has steered away from them so far, knowing that they can so easily fall flat, even if the actor gives a good performance.
