I'm a blonde who prefers gentlemen, says Scarlett

[Bill5461]

Interview from The Austrailian

James Christopher
September 08, 2006
THE art of sensible reporting has never troubled the Venice Film Festival. Take, for example, the arrival of Scarlett Johansson, who sashays into a packed press tent on silver stilettos and pulls up a chair right next to me.
She is here to talk about her role in Brian De Palma's The Black Dahlia, but most of the people here seem to be under the impression that she is promoting underwear.
The tight, white tennis shorts encasing perfectly tapered legs and the spangly top leave nothing to a middle-aged imagination.
On separate occasions, De Palma and Woody Allen have described Johansson as "an old soul". That looks like deeply wishful thinking from my seat.
I'm about to ask something intelligent along the lines of: "Do you think Brian De Palma is a misogynist?" when the rest of the world's finest scribes butt in with a blizzard of questions.
"Do you believe that wearing red lipstick makes you feel more feminine?" asks one cineaste.
"I think it would make a man feel more feminine," quips the star.
"You said you prefer men over 30," dribbles a reporter. "Is that true?"
There's a green flash of indignation from Johansson. "I never said that," she groans. "I just prefer men."
So it goes on. A chorus of film buffs grills the 21-year-old actress about her "curves", her non-existent diet, her silverware -- apparently stolen in London -- and her ideal man, who may or may not be Josh Hartnett, her co-star in The Black Dahlia.
Johansson is now bigger news than her pictures. Not that these are particularly small. She makes a heart-stopping entrance in The Black Dahlia as a Marilyn Monroe vamp who could eat the entire cast for breakfast and half the scenery by lunch. Her beauty and hourglass figure come freshly minted from the cover of a 1950s magazine. The deep, sexy drawl has the alluring promise of a Lauren Bacall whistle.
It might be the crazed media desire to turn lamb into Hollywood mutton that has made Johansson such a lucrative pull. But directors such as De Palma have milked her aptitude for old-fashioned glamour as mercilessly as anyone else.
In The Black Dahlia it's Johansson's romantic chemistry with Hartnett that fascinates the film intelligentsia.
Johansson tells another story: "Everyone thinks those intimate scenes are dynamite, but you've got 60 men chewing sandwiches behind the camera and someone going: 'So now you're going to crash into that chair, fall over the table and come up against this wall'. Hopefully it sells, but it's not really as exciting as it looks." Yet another fascinating exclusive.
Johansson is a fabulous blonde distraction who is probably doomed to spend the rest of her press conference life trying to throttle the Marilyn Monroe image that she wears so convincingly on screen.
"I didn't want to model myself on any particular actress from that period," she argues.
"I didn't look at a single picture of Marilyn Monroe. I didn't want to look like a movie starlet with big diamonds. Instead, I studied the different fashion styles of the period and took most of my inspiration from books."
She is clearly not as passionate about film noir as De Palma is. "I do like some noir, but for me too much of it is wrapped up in guns and cops," she said.
"I can appreciate it aesthetically, but I'm more of an All About Eve girl. I prefer that kind of melodrama more than stock pulp fiction."
Apparently what Johansson is really aching to do next is a horror film.
"I was watching The Shining the other day, and it would be really great to do a film like that. Not that anyone compares to Kubrick in the league of eeriness. But it would be nice to do a dark psychological drama."
If that brief doesn't launch a thousand scripts, I'll be mighty surprised.

[MSFixR]

Sure is nice when you can get the press to do your promo work for you.

[Bill5461]

They fall over backwards to do it too

[BlackWolf]

Hahaha, the press is so professional

Thanks for the Bill