Scarlett Johansson In Black Widow Costume Pose (Photo Credit – Instagram)
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Black Widow may have worn a tight suit and thrown punches in a billion-dollar universe, but that role turned out to be a turning point for Scarlett Johansson and not a sellout. Although there are countless individuals who perceive the Marvel machine as a place where artistic ambition goes to die, Johansson used it to quietly reshape her path.
The 40-year-old star’s filmography, if one stops to look at it, will see that she has starred in almost every type of movies. It includes everything from indie darlings to Hollywood juggernauts and from dreamy mood pieces to sci-fi body horror. Truth be told, there are only a few actors (even more nowadays) who could jump from The Horse Whisperer to Under the Skin and from Vicky Cristina Barcelona to Marriage Story, without ever seeming like they’re playing it safe.
Johansson didn’t wait for Hollywood to hand her a career. She had already built one long before superhero franchises swallowed the industry. The actress had already been working for years. She started young, appearing in films before most kids figure out multiplication. Her early performances were confident in ways that didn’t feel forced.
By the time she starred in Lost in Translation, her ability to carry the quiet weight of a story was impossible to miss. The Sofia Coppola-directed movie didn’t just make her famous; overnight, she became another face for the industry to project its fantasies onto.
The Impact Of Typecasting & Hollywood’s Gaze
Hollywood became well aware of how to light Johansson up on screen, but unfortunately they also tried to box her in as a sex symbol. For almost 10 years, she was typecast and propped up more for her image than her range. Her collaborations with certain directors (mainly Woody Allen) only deepened the sense that she was being steered.
In a 2025 interview with Vanity Fair, she opened up on that time which she termed as a low point in her illustrious career.
“You come into your sexuality and your desirability as part of your growth, and it’s exciting to blossom into yourself,” she said. “You’re wearing the clothes you want, you’re expressing yourself, then you suddenly turn around, and you’re like, ‘Wait, I feel like I’m being’—I don’t want to say exploited because it’s such a severe word… but yeah, it was a kind of an exploitation.”
How Marvel Helped Scarlett Johansson Break The Mold
When Johansson stepped into the Marvel universe, it could’ve been a final act of submission to the system. Instead, she turned it into a pivot. Black Widow gave her global visibility, but more importantly it gave her room to try smarter projects in between her other movie roles.
She slipped in characters that didn’t quite fit the traditional formula of predictability. Johansson became an alien in a human body in Under the Skin, a Nazi-era mother in Jojo Rabbit, and a lonely voice from the future in Asteroid City.
Although these movie roles did not always make the biggest box office splash, they made Johansson’s career impossible to pigeonhole.
