Scarlett Johansson feels that over her career, she has been objectified.
The actress, 37, who rose to fame as a child actor, believes she was “hypersexualized” at an early age.
Johansson admitted to being objectified and pigeonholed in this manner on the “Armchair Expert” podcast: “I felt like I wasn’t receiving offers for work for things that I wanted to do.
I distinctly recall thinking, “I assume people think I’m 40 years old,” to myself. It lost its appealing qualities and my battle against it in some mysterious way.
Johansson recalls feeling “pigeonholed” after appearing in the Sofia Coppola-directed film “Lost in Translation” with Bill Murray.
“I believe people assumed I was older and that I’d been (acting) for a long time, I was sort of pigeonholed into this odd hypersexualized thing,” the Hollywood actress, who was a teenager when she shot the movie, said. I believed that (my career) was ended.
‘That’s the type of career you have, these are the parts you’ve performed,’ it was like. And I thought, “Is this it? ”
In “Lost in Translation,” Johansson portrayed a woman who was five years her older, and the actress distinctly remembers worrying about the impact the role might have on her career.
The runway is not very long on that, she said. So, it was frightening at the moment. I thought in a strange manner, “Is this it?” I mostly ascribed it to people believing that I was far older than I really was.
Johansson, on the other hand, believes that the environment for young actors nowadays has significantly changed.
“I see younger actresses who are in their twenties,” she remarked. They seem to have the freedom to be so many different things.
It’s also another time. Thankfully, we’re no longer even permitted to categorize other actors. People are lot livelier now.