Get ready for SCARLETT’S YEAR!
After 23 years in the business, this looks set to be Scarlett Johansson’s year. Jessica Barrett reveals the secret of her success
scarlett johansson may only be 35, but she has been a red carpet staple for more than 20 years. Ever since her first roles as a child actress she has found an impressive place in Hollywood as star of acclaimed films like Lost In Translation and Girl With A Pearl Earring, as well as big budget studio films. Until now, however, she has been missing something: awards glory. But as 2020’s awards season kicks off, that could change.
All eyes are on Scarlett at this year’s Golden Globes in which she is nominated for Best Actress for her performance in Netflix’s critically acclaimed Marriage Story. She also has a nod for that role at the Screen Actors Guild Awards but could receive an accolade for Best Supporting Actress too, for her role in Jojo Rabbit. Then there is her Best Actress nomination at the Independent Spirit Awards (often a good predictor for Oscar nods), again for Marriage Story.
While nothing is certain until the golden envelopes are opened, these nominations mark a huge turning point in Scarlett’s career. Though she has been acting since she was 12, she has never been nominated for an Oscar, but critics believe this could be her year. Either way, the Golden Globe nods are the first she’s received since 2006, when she was recognised for her role in Match Point.
Scarlett has admitted that her work on Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story was emotional, because at the time she was going through her own divorce from husband of three years Romain Dauriac, with whom she has a daughter, Rose. She told Variety, ‘It was a strange coincidence… It was about a divorce and I was going through it and felt that it was something I should explore. I felt it was the right time for Noah and I to work together,’ she added.
Working on Marriage Story marked a new beginning for Scarlett romantically too, and while she was still dealing with the fall-out from her divorce, she began dating Saturday Night Live producer Colin Jost (who she
first met when she appeared on the show in 2010) and they were engaged in October last year. At the end of last month, the normally very private Scarlett surprised many when she announced on SNL, ‘I have so many friends here – and I met the love of my life here,’ before kissing Colin on live TV.
The source adds that Scarlett is certain that this marriage, her third (the first was to Ryan Reynolds in 2008), is the one she is always destined to have been in. ‘Colin and Scarlett clicked right away. She loves his friends, his family and he has this ability to make her laugh. He’s hugely ambitious and talented too, and that really attracts her to him. He really has become her soulmate.’
Now, the pair are making wedding plans says the source, who explains that they are in the process of figuring out the best date as well as venues, adding, ‘They want to have a child of their own sooner rather than later.’
While the past few months have been undeniably exciting and happy ones for Scarlett, she has, even by her own fans’ admission, been on a problematic streak in recent years. In 2017, she was criticised for playing an Asian character in the film adaptation of a popular Japanese manga, Ghost In The Shell, which launched a bigger debate about whitewashing in Hollywood. Just a year later, she was called out again after being cast as a transgender character in Rub & Tug, a role that many believed should have gone to a trans actor and which Scarlett eventually relinquished. Scarlett was criticised further when, in an interview last summer, she spoke about the casting controversy, saying, ‘As an actor, I should be able to play any person, or any tree, or any animal, because that’s my job.’
In September last year she defended Woody Allen, who has been accused by adopted daughter Dylan Farrow of sexually abusing her as a child, saying, ‘I love Woody. I believe him, and I would work with him any time.’ She then defended her comments in an interview in November, saying, ‘I feel the way I feel about it. It’s my experience.’
Scarlett’s opinions don’t seem to harm her box office appeal, though. Forbes listed her as the highest-paid actress in Hollywood last year, earning $56m thanks to the Marvel franchises in which she plays Black Widow. But Grazia’s source says she has been advised by her team to leave the controversy behind, adding, ‘There is a hope that awards season could be a good opportunity for her to try and turn public opinion around.’