And in other news, rain is wet

[selenak]

Reporter interviewing RDJ and Scarlet Johannsen demonstrates sexist idiocy, gets called out by ScarJo on same.

You know, about 80% of the lj reviews I've read who loved Black Widow started their praise with a disclaimer that the reviewer normally hates/dislikes/doesn't care for Scarlet J., but in this case, etc. Now I had seen Ms Johannsen in a few films, not many, pre-Avengers, the most memorable of which had been The Prestige, in which I had liked her in a supporting role. I had never read an interview she gave, so I had no idea about what her off screen persona might be. Which means I also don't know, to this day, what ScarJo did to be disliked by so many. Was it simply because she's a successful young actress? Was she in the habit of being offensive? I have no idea. But I do know that the behaviour of the reporter in the post I linked is all too common (and also reflected in those mostly male reviews which, completely ignoring any actual scene content and Natasha's quintessential plot contributions, sum up her role as eye candy), and I can't tell you how delighted I am that finally a younger actress (awesome veterans like Helen Mirren have been known to do it before, of course) calls the guy on question out on it.

I already loved your role, Ms. Johannsen. Now, whatever people's pre Avengers beef with you was, I also salute you.

Comments

[lilacsigil]

All I can think of is that she's been cast in some roles that demanded little other than standing around looking attractive: how dare she do that AND expect to be treated like a human being! But I was thrilled with her dedication to the role of Natasha (which she actively chased) and how she's dealt with the bullshit since. I really liked her performance in "Lost in Translation" but I know a lot of people hate Sofia Coppola movies too...

[selenak]

Ah yes, the Sofia Coppola hate meeting the ScarJo and/or Kirsten Dunst hostility... Not pretty. I've seen people credit the success of Lost in Translation solely to Bill Murray. :(

[liviapenn]

I think she was just one of those actresses who was TOO PRETTY and too successful and suddenly it was cool to be a hater. There's always some reason, like "Katherine Heigl is a meanie" or "Megan Fox is stupid" or "Jennifer Lawrence is fat," or whatever. I don't know what it was for ScarJo.

[selenak]

....fat? Jennifer Lawrence?!? ...

Never mind, nothing surprises me anymore. But yes. The combination of pretty and successful for longer than one or two movies isn't easily forgiven, it seems, by the public at large.

[liviapenn]

Well, people were saying Katniss Everdeen should look half-starved. And Jennifer Lawrence has that cute little round baby face-- like, of course she does, she's barely even 21! So, she doesn't look like she's about to fall over and die. But Katniss is a very physical action heroine as well, she can't be played by a starving waif. The whole thing was ridiculous. *shakes head*

[gehayi]

And if she HAD looked like a starving waif, people would have bitched that she didn't look as if she could do all the action scenes.

BTW, I didn't notice anyone bitching about Gale being all muscular and buff, despite living in a poverty-stricken area.

[selenak]

Excellent point about Gale and the (lack of) reaction to his buffness!

[roseblight]

I'm always baffled when I read things like this because it shows me how much of a rock I live under even on the internet (but then I do that on purpose to avoid just such things so).

People don't like Scarlet Johannsen what? I did read that she made an album of Tom Waits covers at one point which I'm sort of going to assume didn't help.

[selenak]

I envy your rock. Also, the Tom Waits covers thing is news to me and sounds cool .:)

[thirdblindmouse]

Her interview in Cosmopolitan first gave me hope that at least as a person she was pretty cool. Avengers showed me that she can really rock on screen. That interview shows that she is made of guts and excellence. <3

I was among those who weren't expecting much from Black Widow in Avengers, because I had never seen Scarlett Johannsen in a role where she shone -- including as Black Widow in Iron Man 2, whom the movie handled disappointingly poorly. Any comments I've left regarding Black Widow in Avengers probably included that fact, because that was a significant part of my experience watching -- bracing myself for the female superhero who would be the least developed part of the team, which happens all the time and which I had not had any indication was not going to be the case this time as well, and being bowled over to find the Black Widow was one of the best parts of the movie. Was that wrong of me?

[selenak]

Oh, I agree about Black Widow in Iron Man 2, but there I blame (and blamed back then) the writing, which was as a friend of mine put it, "a hot mess" overall. And believe me, I understand being conditioned to expect the female team members to be underwritten and barely there.

However, in this case I had faith because of Joss Whedon. Before you jump to conclusion, it's not that I unconditionally like anything the man wrote/writes and directs, far from it. But I like more than I dislike, and he has a track record of being a) good with ensembles, which meant I could trust all characters would get a chance to shine, not just two or therabouts, b) good with female superheroes (this, err, made his name), and c) good with Marvel characters. (His run of Astonishing X-Men is my favourite work of his bar BtVS and AtS, and in it he did not only a great job with "classic" female Marvel characters Emma Frost and Kitty Pryde but also invented new ones who proved so popular Marvel kept them around after his run ended, tough, morally ambigous Agent Abigail Brand, and a young mutant named Hisako. Abigail Brand especially gave me hope JW would do a good job with Natasha.

Back to Scarlett Johannsen: as mentioned, I'd seen her in The Prestige, and I also thought she did an excellent job in Lost in Translation. Neither character was remotely Black Widow-like, but they also didn't resemble each other, so I did assume she had variety.

[thirdblindmouse]

In retrospect, knowing The Avengers was a Joss Whedon creation should have given me more confidence in the movie's use of female superheroes than it did at the time. I have yet to read his Astonishing X-Men, but it has been recommended to me.

I didn't like Lost in Translation (not Scarlett Johansson in particular; I didn't get the movie at all), and I've completely forgotten what she did in The Prestige. Iron Man 2 was unfortunately the first non- moody art film I remembered seeing her in.

[oyceter]

As an anecdotal bit, my sister definitely said she did not like Scarlett Johanssen, and when I asked her why (I think this was pre-Avengers), she said it was because she was always cast in the "sexy" roles. So... conflation of media stereotyping with the person? It probably also doesn't help to have all the fashion magazines going on about how sexy she is or whatever. That, at least, seems to be resentment about women having to live up to a certain nebulous ideal that ends up being directed at the woman herself instead of at social forces.