SCARLETT INGRID JOHANSSON, born November 22nd, 1984 (33 years old) - she gained widespread recognition in late 90's and she became an indie muse in the early 2000's. Now she's considered one of the best actresses of her generation and, thanks to her appearances as Natasha Romanoff AKA Black Widow in Marvel Cinematic Universe, she's also one of the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood.
So... Just like I mentioned in a previous poster, let's celebrate 10 years of MCU and the massive worldwide success of Avengers: Infinity War by having a look at its main cast members careers and major acting achievements. The second "victim" is Scarlett Johansson, long-time friend of Chris Evans (our previous study subject).
Here's a small study on Scarlett Johansson's rich career in 5 cinematic moments:
- THE HORSE WHISPERER (1998)
Robert Redford described her "13 going on 30" by the time The Horse Whisperer was released, but I guess not even Redford was able to predict the size of Scarlett's future stardom. The movie was a box-office hit, grossing almost $187M from a $60M production budget and it is considered a major 90's hit. The movie stars Redford himself and Kristin Scott-Thomas and it has Sam Neil, Chris Cooper and Dianne Wiest... but it's Johansson who shines here as a bitter and withdrawn teen amputee, showing an impressive degree of charisma, acting range and screen presence. Among a big couple of award nominations, Scarlett got a Most Promising Actress nom from the Chicago Film Critics Association.
- LOST IN TRANSLATION (2003)
In 2003, Scarlett Johansson made a sudden transition from teen roles to adult roles in Sofia Coppola's Lost In Translation and Girl With a Pearl Earring, receiving tons of critical acclaim for her performances in both, but achieving the "iconic" status thanks to the former. In Coppola's comedy-drama, she plays a mid-twenties young wife who falls in love for a movie star whose marriage is on the rocks, when they're both alone in Tokyo. Johansson received huge praise for her courage and ability to play someone much older (she was 17 at the time of the filming) and major critics considered her performance wonderful and in perfect synthony with the movie itself. She was considered a major Oscar frontrunner for Best Actress for Lost In Translation, but she missed the Academy Award nomination - no matter what, she was nominated for two Golden Globes (drama, for Girl With a Pearl Earring, and comedy for Lost In Translation) and for two BAFTA Awards for Best Leading Actress, winning for Lost In Translation. No matter what, Lost In Translation ended-up nominated for 4 Academy Awards (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Bill Murray and Best Original Screenplay, winning the last one), grossed almost $120M from a $4M budget and worked as a huge acting showcase for the actress and made the world discover her talent.
- VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA (2008)
When Kate Winslet had to exit Match Point, Woody Allen casted Scarlett Johansson in her part - it would be the first of three collaborations between Johansson and Woody. After a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress and being considered a major contender for an Oscar nomination for her dynamite performance as an American seductress dealing with members of Britain's high society in Match Point (2005), Allen offered her the leading lady part in 2006's Scoop, which wasn't as successful as their first collaboration. But in 2007, Allen wrote a part for Scarlett Johansson and started filming a new movie in Barcelona to be released in 2008. The movie, called Vicky Cristina Barcelona got award attentions to all the other main cast members (Javier Bardem, Rebecca Hall and Penélope Cruz), but it's Johansson who's fluid, relaxed and sexy all at the same time - a true sexual being in the form of a perfect comedy leading lady! A part written just for her in one of the most acclaimed and profitable 2000's Woody Allen movies - Vicky Cristina Barcelona got nominated for 4 Golden Globes (winning Best Comedy) and for 1 Academy Award (Best Supporting Actress, Penélope Cruz, who won).
- MCU's highlight - MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS (2012)
After an unthankful (yet showy) supporting part in Iron Man 2 as Natasha Romanoff, Joss Whedon gave juicy material to Scarlett's Black Widow in the super-sized superhero stravaganza epic The Avengers. The first time Earth's mightiest superheroes met estabilishes Black Widow's as a MCU's leading lady, a complex character and something more than a simple eye-candy. Great action scenes, some dramatic moments and a lot of charisma, Marvel's The Avengers generated a big question: why does Black Widow do not have her standalone movie? Here, you have a glimpse at the super-spy's past and her darker side, going from "almost a cameo" in Iron Man 2 to a major player in the Avengers series. As for Johansson, the audience attentions, alongside the movie's critical acclaim and commercial success of the movie (it grossed $1.519 billion worldwide), revitalized her career (she had no major hits since Vicky Cristina Barcelona besides Iron Man 2) as gave her enough space to play be part of bankable big productions and more daring small indie productions that define her career from 2012 until today.
- The "What's being human" phase - HER (2013), UNDER THE SKIN (2014), LUCY (2014) and GHOST IN THE SHELL (2017)
All these four films star Scarlett Johansson and they are about her either forgetting, discovering or transcending her identity - the lines between "human" and "nonhuman" become blurred and almost indistinguishable. Considered by some as "The Queen of Sci-Fi", Johansson delivered some remarkable performances between the duties of her Marvel contract, starting with Spike Jonze's Her (2013) - a voice performance as a IOS named Samantha who falls in love for Joaquin Phoenix's character that earned the actress some of the best reviews of her career, getting awards attentions for her work and being taken as an Oscar contender for Best Supporting Actress (she didn't make it, but the movie was nominated for 5 Academy Awards, including Best Picture and winning Best Original Screenplay). In 2014, she starred Jonathan Glazer's Under the Skin as an alien disguised as a woman who learns the meaning of being a human until it leds her to a breaking point - a performance that was considered the best of Johansson's career and she collected a ton of critics awards nominations, but in spite of the critical acclaim, the movie did not perform well at the box-office during its limited release. The same year, she had a huge box-office hit - Luc Besson's Lucy, her major box-office success outside the MCU, playing a woman who gains psychokinetic abilities and basically becomes God (the movie got praised for the visuals, the action and Johansson's performance and grossed $463.4M against a $40M budget). Finally, a winning Johansson performance in a controversial movie adaptation - Ghost in the Shell. Scarlett plays a woman whose mind is stuck in a robotic body and she's not allowed to discover her past - she's great in the part, but whitewashing accusations (the character was asian in the source material) did not allow people to fully recognize the actress' commanding leading performance (critics agreed she was good in the part and praised the visuals and action scenes) and the movie performed under expectations at the box-office mostly because of the controversy
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