Scarlett Johansson says Hollywood has changed for the better when it comes to women’s roles. The actress shared her thoughts in a recent interview with The Times of London.
Johansson explained that when she started acting, most roles she was offered focused on “desirability” and the male gaze. These characters often existed mainly to support male storylines. Now, she believes Hollywood offers “a different time for young women.”
“The messaging is different — there are many more role models, women are visible in powerful positions,” Johansson said. “The opportunities I have had to play women who don’t have to just be one thing or another have increased.”
She added that early in her career, “a lot of the roles I was offered, or I went for, had their ambitions or character arcs revolving around their own desirability, or the male gaze, or a male-centered story. That is less frequent, though — something has shifted.”
This is not the first time Johansson has spoken about these issues. In 2022, the “Avengers” star said she was “hypersexualized” by the industry at a young age. She felt this made it hard to get different types of roles.
“I kind of became objectified and pigeonholed in this way where I felt like I wasn’t getting offers for work for things that I wanted to do,” she said previously. “I remember thinking to myself, ‘I think people think I’m 40 years old.’ It somehow stopped being something that was desirable and something that I was fighting against.”
Johansson’s comments highlight the ongoing changes in Hollywood as the industry works to create better opportunities for women actors.
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