Scarlett Johansson is not covered in teflon, but she has an uncanny knack for giving terrible interviews, saying wildly offensive things and just moving on like nothing happened. And almost everyone moves on too. Is it some kind of hot-woman privilege or is it specific to ScarJo? Well, Scarlett is currently promoting her directorial debut, Eleanor the Great. Scarlett directed June Squibb in the lead, for a movie about a woman who pretends to have survived the Holocaust so she can make friends in a New York-based support group. The Telegraph spoke to Scarlett about the script, how the project almost fell apart and how she still supports Woody Allen.
She lost a major backer a month before filming: One of Johansson’s financial backers got in touch with a stipulation regarding the script. The gist of it? Love the film, Scarlett, but we’re not so keen on the whole Holocaust thing. Can we have the character lie about something else? The demand came “after months of preparatory work”, Johansson recalls, despairingly. “I mean, if they’d said ‘I’ll only back this if you shoot in New Jersey,’ or ‘We need to get this done by the spring’, then that would have been one thing. But they were objecting to what the film actually was. It had to be about what happens when someone gets caught in the worst lie imaginable; if not the Holocaust, then what could it be? They offered no alternative. It was just, ‘This is an issue.’”
Suing Disney over a contractual pay dispute: The studio settled two months later for a reported $40m, stating that it was already looking forward to working with Johansson again “on a number of upcoming projects”. What does she think of her colleagues’ resounding silence? “I mean, it would be great to have more support from the community and my peers – vocally, publicly – on certain issues that affect the entire industry. It’s always helpful to have more voices, you guys!” Having said that, even in cases where she is pretty much a lone voice, speaking out “can still be really effective”. The Marvel pay spat, she adds, was a good example. “As we moved from the model of theatrical box-office bonuses to understanding how that translated to streaming, it had just become this nebulous thing, with no guidelines around it. So to be able to impact that moves everything in the right direction. But yes, I would welcome more support.”
Whether supporting Woody Allen affected her career: “I guess it’s hard to know. You never know what the domino effect is, exactly. But my mom always encouraged me to be myself, [to see] that it’s important to have integrity, and stand up for what you believe in. At the same time, I think it’s also important to know when it’s not your turn. I don’t mean that you should silence yourself. I mean sometimes it’s just not your time. And that’s something I’ve understood more as I’ve matured.”
How Hollywood is still tough for women: “I think it’s still tough. There have always been great roles in Hollywood for women. But the standards are tough. In general, there’s so much more expected of female actors. If a female actor had experienced, let’s say, a huge addiction, or a public fall from grace, the road to getting back for them is almost impossible to pave, right? Whereas for men, it’s just another dramatic twist in the story, and then it’s on to the comeback. For men, it can be almost heroic. But for women, it’s like you just disappear.”
Scarlett actually recorded real Holocaust survivors’ stories for the film: Given the nature of Eleanor’s lies – which, smartly, are never actually shown; the camera always cuts back to Bessie’s own, truthful testimony – Johansson wanted to make sure she didn’t err in matters of taste, or worse. She seems especially proud that each member of the film’s support group is played by someone who, in real life, would have every right to be there, at a time when only around 245,000 survivors are still alive worldwide, and misinformation and outright denial is on the rise. They were, she says, “an amazing group. But it took work to identify people who were both willing and able to participate.”
I think the Woody thing has become so distasteful/toxic to the point where people don’t even want to acknowledge when an actor has previously supported Woody. When Diane Keaton passed, there were some references to her defense of Woody, but most people were like “eh, it’s complicated.” Same with Cate Blanchett, Penelope Cruz and several others who never really cut ties or apologized for working with him. I’m actually surprised Scarlett even bothered to comment, but as I said – she’s made of teflon to a certain extent.
The Disney stuff was a rare moment when I was 100% on her side. Disney fought back against her lawsuit in a really wild, sexist, patronizing way, and Scarlett got some really sympathetic coverage for standing up to Hollywood’s Goliath. Disney’s initial misread of the situation was a huge reason why they settled with Scarlett within a few months as well.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
