Scarlett Johansson’s favourite action movie
Scarlett Johansson is one of those actors who has only improved as her career progressed. Since her debut in the 1994 comedy-drama North, she has become a seriously accomplished performer, not to mention one with a vast range who can excel across a wide variety of genres.
Over the years, Johansson has taken on increasingly interesting roles as time has gone on, perhaps most memorably playing an alien drifting through Scotland in the British art-house flick Under the Skin. Later, when working on projects such as Marriage Story and Jojo Rabbit, she delivered two of the very best performances of her career.
In recent years, it definitely feels like Hollywood has taken advantage of Johansson’s considerable acting chops rather than just treating her as a pretty face, and that’s very satisfying to see. At her best, Johansson is a force to be reckoned with. Her most recent film role was in Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City, which marked her second collaboration with the meticulous auteur, having previously helmed a voice role in Isle of Dogs.
Around the time of the film’s release, Johansson sat down with Letterboxd to discuss her four favourite films of all time. She listed the following: Auntie Mame, Groundhog Day, Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, and Terminator 2: Judgement Day.
The latter choice has particular significance for, if there’s one genre Johansson has really made her mark in, it’s the action genre. This is partly thanks to her excellent tenure as Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which began with 2010’s Iron Man 2 and concluded with 2021’s regrettable Black Widow. She’s also pulled together other memorable action-hero roles, such as in The Island, Lucy in 2014, and Ghost in the Shell three years later.
Terminator 2 is easily one of the finest films in the history of the action genre, and it really showed just what an action film can accomplish. As well as having revolutionary special effects, the movie absolutely excelled as a sequel that evolved upon the original, and it was a stellar mixture of style and substance too. With its well-crafted characters and powerful ending, it showed that action cinema can work on a dramatic level as well as a visceral one.
The project also features a memorably bad-ass performance from Linda Hamilton, who, alongside Sigourney Weaver in Aliens, undoubtedly paved the way for the action heroines of the future. In more ways than one, the many action movies that Johnasson has starred in owe a debt to Terminator 2. Even now, more than 30 years removed from its triumphant release, James Cameron’s glorious sequel is as influential as ever.
