F. Scott Fitzgerald famously described Daisy Buchanan, his “Great Gatsby” heroine, as having a voice that’s “full of money.”
In response to the suit, the studio took off the gloves and released a jaw-dropping statement that slammed Johansson for her “callous disregard for the horrific and prolonged global effects of the COVID-19 pandemic” and casually revealed her tightly guarded $20 million upfront salary.
Miraculously, any bad blood between Disney and Johansson has dissipated. The 38-year-old actress remains in business with the studio on the planned “Tower of Terror,” based on its popular theme park ride, with Taika Waititi attached to direct. And she still visits Disney World at least 10 times a year and geeks out when talking about the studio’s movies. The obsession stems from a two-year period when her family lived in Florida.
Born into a bohemian Manhattan family three minutes before her twin brother, Hunter, Johansson spent her early years with her parents and two other siblings in various cramped Greenwich Village apartments that couldn’t contain her. “I needed a lot of attention. Yeah, ‘Look at me. What about look at me now,’” she says of her initial interest in performing. “I think that was a big driving force. I was kind of a ham and I just loved imaginary things. I loved singing and dancing.
Though she continued to hustle, she felt lost. “I got turned down for two roles — the first was ‘Iron Man 2’ and then the other one was Alfonso Cuarón’s ‘Gravity,’” she continues. “I had wanted that role so much. It was sort of the straw that broke the camel’s back. I felt really frustrated and hopeless. Like, ‘Am I doing the right job?’ The work I was being offered felt deeply unfulfilling. I think I was offered every Marilyn Monroe script ever.
Three days later, when I reconnect with Johansson, she admits that my question sparked “an existential angst” and had been eating at her over the weekend. “Actually, I was thinking after we talked, and talking to Colin about it, why some people go that other way,” she says, referencing her husband, “Saturday Night Live” player Colin Jost. “I guess I could have just as easily gone the other direction.