Saturday, February 23, 2008

Scarlett Johansson Speaks Of Ambition

Somewhere, interviews with Scarlett Johansson always seem to curl back into this discipline, and even at 18, when she was first in the field of tables full of journalists when travelling, it was amazingly sure of herself and her place in the world, completely free of the fragility of nerve expected Émergent starlets. She is now 23. "I feel like a strong woman," Scarlett Johansson said, musingly. "For sure. It is a powerful modern woman."

We are here today to discuss ostensibly The Other Boleyn Girl, a costume drama adapted for the screen by Peter Morgan, who also wrote The Queen. Scarlett Johansson plays Mary, the sweetness and younger sister of the mother of conniving doomed Anne Boleyn (Natalie Portman), the second wife of Henry VIII.

It is 450 years since the head of Anne Boleyn fell from the chopping block ambitious but women are still regarded with suspicion by Hollywood's columnists, the popular press. Scarlett Johansson is not the kind of person to comply with these expectations. "The goal is healthy," she says firmly. "All successful people are ambitious. And we need to be ambitious to succeed. You have to have hope, have the opportunity to see. And you have to set goals for yourself. I think that is important. "

And it seems to work: we saw a large part of the famous pout Johansson in recent years. She has served since his childhood, the press notes for The Other Boleyn Girl tell us she made her debut at the age of eight in a play with Ethan Hawke. Even before that, she was registered with the agency responsible for making advertisements, it has always been, she said in previous interviews, eager to accomplish.

Scarlett Johansson has already won a very respectable list of work before Sofia Coppola Lost in Translation (2003) has made known his name. One of his first film roles was as Grace in The Horse Whisperer - coincidentally, a role Portman rejected. She was also Thora Birch suburban airhead friend who is excited by a high-ironing board in Terry Zwigoff's Ghost World, a performance that earned her best actress in support of the film festival in Toronto. She also appeared in the Coen Brothers' film noir The Man Who Was not There.

Recently, however, it was difficult to make sense of the choices Scarlett Johansson
has made. Maybe it's just that there have been so many. Girl With a Pearl Earring, visually splendid costume drama based on a best seller, probably offered a strategic move into the World brocade British period film. But there is no explaining his choice to play the daughter of the boss of stagnation rom-com in good company, or regulation blonde Michael Bay, The Island.