Scarlett Johansson Says Getting Turned Down for ‘Gravity’ Left Her ‘Hopeless’
Scarlett Johansson Says Getting Turned Down for ‘Gravity’ Left Her ‘Hopeless’ https://t.co/HRYdX3vW29 pic.twitter.com/4jUeLilSHU
- IndieWire (@IndieWire) May 9, 2023
Marion Cotillard and Natalie Portman also screen-tested for the lead role of a scientist trapped in space, and Blake Lively and Johansson were considered before Sandra Bullock was ( Read more... )
“Look, we saw some amazing people. Scarlett Johansson was great. It was a great audition, I’m telling you. But the thing with Scarlett is, you can’t wait for her to take her clothes off.”
“I keep trying to explain this,” he goes on. “Salander should be like E.T. If you put E.T. dolls out before anyone had seen the movie, they would say, ‘What is this little squishy thing?’ Well, you know what? When he hides under the table and he grabs the Reese’s Pieces, you love him! It has to be like that.”
“I said, ‘I need you to come in so I can get a photograph of you on a motorcycle,'” Fincher recalls.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/david-fincher-scarlett-johansson-sexy-girl-with-dragon-tattoo-vogue-rooney-mara-249848/
It's insane to me that you can be as big as Scarjo is and someone will still find a way to minimize your talent.... and I say this as someone who doesn't even like Scarjo. Lol
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I'm also baffled at the thing of, "I can't believe I was turned down for Black Widow initially" as though Black Widow isn't exactly the same as any other bombshell role.
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She's talked about how she was groomed (in the non-paedo sense, but as in 'groomed for a role') into these bombshell/attractive-to-older-men roles at a really young age, starting when she was 16-17 and ontd still went "har har you leaned into it, stfu tree". And it's easier to tell grown men they're perverts for sexualising a child of 13 than to tell them they're perverts for sexualising an 18 year old, who is technically legal and expected to act like a full adult in every capacity including pretending much older men are what she likes, to promote her movies.
(if we think all that pushing barely legal actresses into bombshell images was 100 percent their choice, at least one actress in Scarjo's age group - Kirsten Dunst - is on the record talking about being pressured into doing a photoshoot in Maxim to promote Bring It On, a teen movie, when she was 18). And Scarjo did have interviews in her early breakout years age 19-20 lamenting how no cute guys her age ever approached her, but she's hateable so everything she says is either nitpicked or disregarded where it doesn't fit the narrative.
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It's not a surprise at all that people in the entertainment industry think this way. This is why I've said that Sydney Sweeney should beg off roles that require her to be nude. It's not about ~the art of cinema~ for these directors. They just want you naked.
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I think what most people don't realize is that actors are often cast based on their personality (and looks, naturally). If you think a certain actor always play themselves, chances are they do lol To give an actual example- I was once casting for a short film where the character was supposed to be this rebel, alternative woman. The women with short hair and tattoos (that they obviously left visible) were top on the priority list. The best audition of the day was this very sweet-looking woman with curly hair and an INSANE screen presence. She looked like an angel but she totally sold the grit, raw energy of the character when she was acting. She didn't get a callback, even tho everyone pretty much agreed her audition was great, bc everyone also agreed that she didn't fit the profile. We didn't have a big budget so we couldn't hold many auditions, and the director/producer wasn't willing to gamble that she'd be able to bring that performance every step of the way, so it was easier to go with a less talented, but more obvious choice for that character, with an actress who already came across as a badass. If you're an actor don't ever go to an audition thinking you'll be cast based on your performance alone - you need to fit the part in terms of demeanor and looks from the get go. I'm not saying that you should dress all in pink if you auditioning for Elle Woods, for example, but make sure your persona during the audition process isn't completely different from the character you're going for. It sucks, but it is how it usually works.
The idea that directors, especially big ones, are willing to bet on talent alone is sweet but not realistic. Most directors are not interested in giving an actor a chance to reinvent themselves or prove how versatile they are, they just want to start with the best paw on paper, to guarantee they win at the end of the game.
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For better or worse, we all judge actors for what they bring to the table and how will they be perceived by the audience.
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meahwile Scarjo had a BAFTA and a Tony by then i.e. some degree of industry acclaim/recognition as a not-shitty actress. I'm still glad they went with an older actress though, ontd may have their own issues with Sandra Bullock but I liked that a 40something woman got to carry that movie.
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