Scarlett Johansson’s career re-direct over the last several years is impressive. She’s become one of the very few actresses who can open an action movie, she’s retained her artistic indie cred, she’s doing the motherhood thing without turning it into a career move, and she has become rather exclusive in her public appearances, so that when she does show up somewhere, it feels like kind of a big deal. I mean, Lainey was just wondering if she would even walk the red carpet at the Oscars this weekend, because it’s no longer something she HAS to do. I wonder if this is why she’s not campaigning for an Oscar—it’s pretty much all she has left to attain, and she’s just 30. She could have mounted an effort for her extremely worthy performance in Under the Skin last year, but she didn’t, and it felt deliberate. Like an “I don’t need this right now” statement.
Scarjo’s working at a steady clip, too, averaging 2-3 major projects a year. I’m not excited about her live-action Ghost in the Shell remake, but yesterday Deadline reported that she will star in an adaptation of Jon Ronson’s The Psychopath Test, about the efforts to diagnose actual psychopaths, and how hard that can really be to do. ScarJo will play the lead in the adaptation, but it’s not clear what kind of part that will be. I hope she’s playing a (potential) psychopath, though. Amazing Amy is so much more interesting than Blonde Doctor #1.