Scarlett Johansson On Acting, 'As You Get Older, You Trust Yourself More'

Scarlett Johansson has been acting since she was nine years old. Over the course of a career that has spanned nearly three decades, Johansson has learned a few things from working in the industry, one of which is putting yourself out there in roles at the risk of looking stupid or vulnerable.

“I feel that I probably wasn’t as willing or able to go to the kind of uncomfortable, embarrassing, ugly places before,” she said, according to Entertainment Weekly. “I think it’s just as you get older, you trust yourself more.”

The seasoned actress celebrates her 10-year run as Natasha Romanoff, the Russian spy of “Avengers” fame. Her newest movie, “Black Widow,” offers her character a final look at her origin story before closing the franchise.

Johansson said she often draws parallels between her Black Widow character’s journey and her own, saying that, “this film is very much a result of that journey, my own personal journey.” She wanted to explore a more in-depth look at Natasha’s road to becoming a superhero, and how she could bounce back from “all these broken pieces.”

“I think this character’s strength really lies in her vulnerability and her acceptance of that,” Johansson says. “She has emotional intelligence that has allowed her to survive without any real superpowers.”

Johansson admitted in a November 2019 Vanity Fair interview that work hasn’t always come easily for her and that at times she felt she couldn’t book anything that was “substantial” or “challenging.” Now, at 35, she is more content with her career and the choices she makes in the industry.

“Maybe I was more concerned with a certain kind of visibility or exposure,” she said. “And now I’m not as worried about that stuff. I’m in a good phase in my career where I’m able to actually wait for stuff that’s right.”