Scarlett Johansson calls Ivanka Trump’s recent comments ‘cowardly’
Weeks after impersonating Ivanka Trump in a biting “Saturday Night Live” sketch, actress Scarlett Johansson said she was “disappointed” by recent comments made by the president’s daughter.
In an interview with Arianna Huffington at the Women in the World Summit in New York City last week, Johansson called Trump’s daughter “cowardly” for taking a muted approach to leadership by choosing to maintain her views and opinions “behind closed doors.”
“It was really baffling,” Johansson said. “You can’t have it both ways, right? If you take a job as a public advocate then you must advocate publicly.”
Johansson’s comments echoed previous criticism that Trump’s presence in the inner fold of the her father’s administration makes her complicit in its actions. Trump addressed those accusations in an interview with CBS News, saying, “If being complicit is wanting to, is wanting to be a force of good and to make a positive impact, then I’m complicit.”
The president’s daughter also said she advocates privately for issues she cares about.
“I would say not to conflate lack of public denouncement with silence,” Trump said. “In some case it’s through protest and it’s through going on the nightly news and talking about or denouncing every issue in which you disagree with. Other times it is quietly, and directly, and candidly.”
This mentality is “old fashioned,” Johansson argued, “this idea that behind a great man is a great woman.”
“What about being in front of that person or next to them or standing on your own?” Johansson said. Many powerful women, she said, are often afraid of being seen in an unforgiving light for speaking out.
The actress said she has met Ivanka Trump several times, having grown up in New York City and sharing mutual friends, and said she is an intelligent, well-spoken woman. She acknowledged the president’s daughter must be facing a “complicated situation on many levels” but urged her to embrace the opportunity to “make a big impact just by being vocal.”
Last month, an SNL sketch featured Johansson as Trump, dressed entirely in gold, in a commercial for her own perfume.
As Trump walks through a room, drawing stares, a narrator intones: “A feminist and advocate, a champion for women. But, like, how? She’s loyal, she’s devoted, but probably should have bounced after the ‘Access Hollywood’ thing.”
The sketch ends with: “Complicit — the fragrance for the woman who could stop all this, but won’t.”