Scarlett Johansson has long been one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars, known for both her dramatic range and her action chops. Recently, she took some time off from promoting her 2025 movie schedule of projects to give an interview, and the Oscar-nominated actress got refreshingly candid about the early years of her career, and how they were shaped by the male gaze and a constant pressure to prove her worth beyond surface-level roles.
The star of the upcoming Jurassic World: Rebirth recently shared in an interview with The Times that her journey to creative freedom hasn’t exactly been smooth. The Black Widow actress opened up about how, early in her career, she was routinely cast for her looks and often found herself playing characters whose stories revolved around their desirability or place in a man’s narrative. She recounted:
You know, it’s a different time for young women. The messaging is different — there are many more role models, women are visible in powerful positions and the opportunities I have had to play women who don’t have to just be one thing or another have increased.
And she’s right. The cultural conversation around female representation in film has shifted significantly in recent years. Johansson, who began acting at the age of nine and became a household name in her teens, says she has noticed the change, not just in Hollywood, but in the opportunities available to women. She continued:
But when I was younger, a lot of the roles I was offered, or I went for, had their ambitions or character arcs revolving around their own desirability, or the male gaze, or a male-centred story. That is less frequent, though — something has shifted.
That shift didn’t happen overnight. For much of her early career, the former Avenger was typecast and lauded for her sultry voice and looks, but offered limited roles that rarely tapped into her depth as an actor. She made a conscious decision to wait for more meaningful projects, even if it meant enduring some career anxiety in the process. The actress added:
So my responsibility then was just to be productive, trying to maintain the momentum of my career and wait for things that felt right. And that is hard because there is an existential angst that comes with waiting, but I had to allow space for the creative process to do its thing. It was nerve-racking. I’m in a business where you feel like, at any moment, you’ll become irrelevant. But I think it pays off — I know it does.
That patience paid off. From the critically acclaimed Marriage Story to Her, Johansson has carved out a distinctive career path marked by bold and diverse roles. She even recently directed her first feature film, Eleanor the Great, which premiered at Cannes earlier this year to strong reviews. Up next she stars in Jurassic World: Rebirth, where she plays a former soldier on a mission to extract dinosaur DNA to cure human heart disease, and based on the trailers, it looks like it’s bringing the dino action back to basics, and I’m here for it!
Johansson is also refreshingly open about the impact of AI and deepfakes in entertainment, especially following a recent controversy in which a voice assistant was launched that sounded eerily like hers. She, along with several other Hollywood A-listers, took legal action, and the company pulled the tool.
Scar Jo continues to prove waiting for the right role, the right moment, and the right message isn’t just smart. It’s powerful. Her latest movie, Jurassic Park: Rebirth, is set to hit theaters on July 2.
