Scarlett Johansson reflects on her past controversies and admits to feeling embarrassed about them. Despite making a career out of having opinions, the actress acknowledges the difficulty in admitting when she’s wrong or not seeing the bigger picture. “To have the experience of, wow, I was really off mark there, or I wasn’t looking at the big picture, or I was inconsiderate. I’m also a person,” she says. In an interview with The Gentlewoman, Johansson opens up about her personal growth and how she’s learned from her mistakes.
Scarlett Johansson has acknowledged that she’s tried to learn when to speak out and when not to, admitting that she can be reactive and impatient. However, she emphasized the importance of maintaining self-awareness in order to avoid mixing those negative qualities with greatness.
Despite the fact that she appears to have come around to the side that held her accountable in the first place, Johansson maintained that actors should not be held to a standard of perfection. According to her, actors do not have obligations to have a public role in society. She stated that while some people want to, the idea that you’re obligated to because you’re in the public eye is unfair. You didn’t choose to be a politician; you’re an actor. Your job is to reflect our experience to ourselves and be a mirror for an audience, to be able to have an empathetic experience through art. That is what your job is.
The story of the actress in 2017’s Ghost in the Shell stirred controversy for whitewashing, as it was based on a Japanese manga series. In an interview with Marie Claire for their March 2017 cover story, she stated that she would never presume to play another race of a person, further fueling the outrage.
In July 2018, Johansson exited the film Rub Tug after news broke that she was set to play a transgender character. Following her departure, she released a statement urging critics to reach out to fellow transgender actors Jeffrey Tambor, Jared Leto, and Felicity Huffman for comment. In an interview with Out magazine, the Avengers: Endgame star revealed that she had “decided to respectfully withdraw [her] participation in the project.”
