Scarlett Johannson

Interview

words by > Bret Love

Scarlett Johansson

She may be only 21 years old, but actress Scarlett Johansson possesses the poise and talent of Hollywood’s greatest leading ladies.

There’s no “Stardom for Dummies”-style book that guides aspiring young actresses down the yellow brick road to an Emerald City life of fame and fortune. But if there was, you can bet the rec ommended route would look nothing like the path-less-traveled that led 21-year-old New York native Scarlett Johanss on to the Hollywood A-list.

While peers such as Lindsay Lohan and Jessica Simpson primped and posed their way into pop culture consciousness by providing seemingly endless fodder for gossip mags, Johansson quietly amassed an impressive resume of nearly 20 films before her twentieth birthday. And while mos t actresses her age were struggling to prove themselves in silly teen comedies or scream queen horror flicks, Johansson was appear ing in critically acclaimed fare from the indie film scene’s finest directors, including Robert Redford’s The Horse Whisperer, Terry Zwigoff’s Ghost World, the Coen brothers’ The Man Who Wasn’t There and Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation.

It was the latter film that made Johansson a bona fide star, famously opening on her shapely, panty-clad bottom before introducing her as a lonely, neglected newlywed who forms an unlikely bond with a fading movie idol (played by Bill Murray) when both wind up staying in the same Tokyo hotel. Three years later, the naturally gorgeous blonde doesn’t seem to have changed much, sitting in an LA hotel room, dressed in jeans and a loose-fitting white blouse that make her look more like the cute coed next door than one of the most in-demand actors in Hollywood.

“Other actresses are proud of the way they look and like to show it off,” she says. “But that’s never really been my style. I don’t think it’s disgusting or wrong—it’s your body, it’s your right to show it—but I think that there are ways of doing it that are more tasteful than just wearing a bikini wherever you go. I try not to let the pressure get to me, but Los Angeles can be very lonely, and it can eat you up if you don’t take care of yourself.”

This willingness to set herself apart from her peers was rooted in childhood, when her now-divorced parents, Denmark-born father Karsten and Bronx-bred mother Melanie, imbued her with a remarkable sense of freedom. “I always had the chance to do whatever I wanted to do,” she recalls warmly. “Acting has always been a passion of mine. I wanted to be in musicals as a kid and took tap dance, so for me it’s a dream come true.”

Though she has reached the age when most young women strive to establish their independence, Johansson cites her mother (who is also her manager) as her closest friend and confidante. “My mom knows a lot about film and has incredible taste,” she says adoringly. “She also happens to be lovely and caring. I trust her and she trusts me, so it really makes for a nice professional and personal relationship. The wonderful thing about my mom is that she completely respects my creative weirdness and supports any decision I make.”

That support includes allowing young Scarlett to pursue an eclectic career that has seen her hopscotch from prestigious indies to big-budget studio films. In the last three years alone, she’s appeared in a period drama (Girl With a Pearl Earring), a goofy kids’ cartoon (The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie), a mature dramedy (In Good Company), a sci-fiaction epic (The Island) and an adulterous thriller from Woody Allen (Match Point).

Asked if there’s any method to her project-picking madness, Johansson says that she simply yearns to explore a variety of roles. “I don’t really think about the future that much,” she insists. “I’m surprised that I haven’t been found out, really. I just continue working, and hope that I can keep going from job to job. I think every film I’ve done is very different, and I’m constantly playing different characters, with different kinds of directors. But even when you get older and start to think about it as more of a career, having to balance an independent film with something that’s more commercial, it’s still about making movies.”

Whether through careful planning or fortuitous circumstance, making movies is something Johansson has been doing quite a lot of lately. She currently has four major films slated for release in the next year, including Woody Allen’s Scoop, Brian de Palma’s The Black Dahlia (based on the novel by James Ellroy), an adaptation of bestselling novel The Nanny Diaries and The Prestige (director Christopher Nolan’s first movie since Batman Begins).

Even for an energetic 21 year old, that’s a lot of projects to juggle at once, and Johansson acknowledges that she could burn out if she continues working at such a frenetic pace. “I’m definitely going to take a nice, long, much-needed rest soon,” she says. “The problem is, once i start to relax for a while I get very anxious, and then I have to do something. So I’m either going to have to find some different kind of career path or just go to some far-away island and have silent self-torture sessions about why I’m not working. It is hard for me to take vacations.”

One aspect of her celebrity status that she admits she wouldn’t mind getting away from for a while is the watchful eye of the tabloids. Though she has refused to discuss her personal relationships in the media, her comments earlier this year (while promoting Match Point, in which her femme fatale character has an affair with a married man) that she doesn’t think human beings are monogamous by nature fed rampant rumor mill speculation about her relationship with actor Josh Hartnett.

“I don’t think there’s any kind of preparation for sudden celebrity,” she says. “You almost have this slight nervous breakdown when that kind of media attention happens. I mean, you’re doing the same kinds of things that you do all the time, only now you have to make these weird adjustments. Like, you’re buying a slice of pizza and somebody is outside photographing you, which is weird. It’s very uncomfortable.”

Johansson won’t respond to gossip, choosing to “let it take its own course, unless it’s horribly and unbelievably untrue and offensive.” But she does acknowledge the difficulty for celebrities to keep their relationships intact. “I think it’s hard for actors in general, just because they’re so moody!” she says with a hearty laugh. “You’re away from people constantly, and having a relationship with somebody on the phone is miserable. It’s difficult in that sense to say, ‘I’m going off with this really sexy guy to do this sexy movie, but i love you and I’m going to be thinking about you when I’m rolling around with him.’ Not only that, but sometimes you get overwhelmed by your emotions when you’re working, so it’s hard to differentiate how you feel when you’re working from how you feel in real life in that moment.”

But in this moment, with her Hollywood star on the rise and her whole life and career in front of her, young Scarlett Johansson seems remarkably blessed. Blessed with talent, with sound instincts, with beauty, with magnetic charisma and with a supportive family who help to keep her grounded.

“It’s very surprising,” she says of her increasing fame. “i never had any expectations. I only hoped and thought when I was younger that I’d like to be a working actor for… well, forever. I hope to always be searching for ultimate satisfaction until the day that I die. Otherwise, gosh, how boring. I mean, it’s good to feel satisfied, but i never want to stop being curious about things. I think you can get to a point in your life where you’re comfortable with that, but i never want to be too comfortable. I’m saying that now, of course, as a 21-year-old girl.

“Ask me in another 35 years,” she laughs, “and I’ll probably tell you that all I want to be is comfortable.”