Scarlett Johansson Says She Was “Pigeonholed” Into “Hypersexualized” Roles Earlier In Her Career

With an acting career that goes back nearly twenty years, Scarlett Johansson is no stranger to being typecast. But EW reports that, when the actress sat down to talk with Dax Shepard and Monica Padman on their “Armchair Expert” podcast, Johansson opened up about how taking on more mature roles earlier in her career led her to be “hyper-sexualized” for most of her career.

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Shepherd led to the topic when he said Johannson “got labeled 15 going on 30” in her early breakout roles like 2001’s “Ghost World” and 2003’s “Lost In Translation.” Johannson admitted that thanks to her career and upbringing in Manhattan, she “definitely was in different situations that were not age-appropriate.” However, her mother was “really good about protecting” her from “a lot of that stuff, but she can’t do that for everything.” But, given her apparent maturity, Johannson eventually got roles that were highly sexual, despite sex not being “a huge part of [her] actual personality.”

“Because I think everybody thought I was older and I’d been [acting] for a long time and then I got kind of pigeonholed into this weird hyper-sexualized thing,” Johannson said. “It was like, that’s the kind of career you have. These are the roles you’ve played and I was like, ‘This is it I guess.'” The actress continued, saying that even though she understood that particular sexualized persona had a short lifespan for women in Hollywood, “it was scary at that time.” 

Johansson also brought up her “The Other Boleyn Girl” co-star Natalie Portman as an example of being pigeonholed in roles in the opposite mode. On the set of the 2008 film, the two actresses discussed the irony of being typecast in roles that were incongruous with their actual personalities. “[Portman] also was saying it kind of f—ed her up because she wasn’t that person. She wasn’t a prude, buttoned-up girl next door.”

But Johansson doesn’t see younger actresses dealing with the same issues she and Portman did in their careers. “I see younger actors that are in their 20s, it feels like they’re allowed to be all these different things,” the actress continued. “We’re not even allowed to really pigeonhole actors anymore.” Johannson brought up Zendaya and her “Black Widow” co-star Florence Pugh as two examples of younger actresses who transcend pigeonholed castings. 

With recent roles like “Marriage Story” and “Jojo Rabbit,” Johansson’s career looks to be veering away from the hypersexualized roles she mentioned in the podcast episode. And one doubts she’ll have a hypersexualized role in Wes Anderson‘s “Asteroid City” or Kristin Scott Thomas‘ “My Mother’s Wedding,” either. But her comments offer a fascinating insider perspective on how Hollywood’s relationship with actresses has evolved over the past twenty years. Are things different now for actresses like Zendaya for Pugh than they were for Portman and Johannson a couple of decades ago? It’s intriguing food for thought.