Go Scarlett (Oscars 8pm)

Posted on by Live & Learn

Even for the smartest and most talented actors, there are far more ways for a movie to fall short than succeed, so it’s a rare moment when project after project clicks seamlessly into place. Right now, Scarlett Johansson is clearly having such a moment. Earlier in the year, she played a pivotal role in what has become the highest-grossing movie of all time worldwide, Avengers: Endgame, and filming has just wrapped for the standalone movie about her character, Black Widow, scheduled for release in May. Meanwhile, her performances in two recent, smaller-scale movies, the searing relationship drama Marriage Story and the extraordinary, off-kilter Nazi-era comedy Jojo Rabbit, are drawing sustained acclaim; for the former she is widely considered a contender for best actress.

All of which seems to leave Johansson quietly proud, but also uneasy.

“I worked really hard for a really long time…So maybe this is the result of that.” There’s a carefulness about Johansson as she says this, not the kind that implies insecurity or a lack of self-belief, more that she is used to being someone for whom it is almost always too soon to really celebrate. “I definitely am the type of person who’s always waiting for the other shoe to drop,” she reflects. “But I’m learning to change that habit.”

~ Chris Heath, Best-Actress Contender Scarlett Johansson on Movies, Marriages, and Controversies (Vanity Fair, Nov 26, 2019)

Photographs of Scarlett Johannson by Andy Gotts

55 thoughts on “Go Scarlett (Oscars 8pm)”

  1. I never heard of her, nor any of the movies she was in. Are you playing a joke on your readers or am I living a sheltered existence down here in South Carolina?

    3. Ray, Ray, I love for that comment! You are ‘my’ kind of guy – and I think it’s far worthier to look after your grandkid(s) than being up to date with film stars. You and me, we both seem often to live under a stone, but hey, they are the stones of wisdom not boredom! 🙂

      1. I disdain their sense of self-importance. (I’m sure there are some not guilty, but I don’t have the time to separate the wheat from the chaff.) With your comment, I know I’m with good company. 👍

        2. 😉 But you know what?! It will be all the SWEETER when you’ve all seen it and forgotten about it – I’m still watching films old as Methusalem and I have still ‘stuff’ to look forward to! 😉

    3. Marriage Story was well done. And it hits all the nerves if you’ve gone through a divorce, which I have, and it wasn’t pretty.

      1. It was. Mine was nothing compared to this. Very friendly and I did my own divorce papers! Still… The communication breakdown is familiar.

  8. I didn’t like her at the beginning, but I soon realised that it was not about her acting but her way of ‘treating life, men, relationships’. Which in itself I found disturbing, as I’m not a person to check out what celebrities are doing in their life. She must have given appalling reason for me to have that terrible first opinion…. Maybe that’s one of the downside of having had access to YTube interviews or what-not!

    I was blown away by her performances in Girl w. a pearl earring, Lost in translation, Match Point, saw her in Vicky Crtistina Barcelona, We bought a zoo and Horse whisperer….. I do think she’s gone from strength to strength and I’m looking forward to view her in newer films to which I have no access yet.

    YES Dave, I’m the only person you know who’s not having TV, I’m a cinema goer and DVD watcher, I am first of all a reader, and now beat me!
    She certainly has high intelligence and that’s always impressive when you ‘can’ be shallow and get away with it in this business.

      1. Why? What did I do this time? I try to make you smile, feel good, be happy(ier), and stay on your usually high level of thinking and writing 🙂

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