You wouldn't know it by talking to her, but Scarlett Johansson
is 13 years old. Mature beyond her years, Johansson has been
recognised for her screen work already in Manny and Lo, and now,
as the emotionally scarred horse rider in Robert Redford's much
praised adaptation of the hit novel, The Horse Whisperer. But the
native New Yorker doesn't mince words when admitting how tough it
is to find credible roles for teenagers. "Unfortunately,
because it's adults writing these scripts, it's tough. The
problem is that adults portray kids like mall-rats, and not
seriously; after all, we're just like little adults and people
with feelings too. Kids and teenagers just aren't being portrayed
with any real depth." Johansson says she's getting sick of
reading "ridiculous scripts about mall-loving teenagers, but
we won't go too deep into that. Let's just say we've gotten some
PAINFULLY BAD scripts, on a weekly basis. And these range from
huge studio projects to nothing projects; it's just
PAINFUL."
If that sounds precocious, she can claim immunity by citing
her credits:
"When you're doing an
independent film, it's more like you're doing it just for the
love of film making"
The pretty blonde New York stage-trained actress first came to
attention playing the daughter of Sean Connery and Kate Capshaw
who was terrorised by Blair Underwood in Just Cause (1995).
Johansson made her stage debut in 1993, at eight, in Sophistry at
Playwrights Horizons Theatre in her native Manhattan and has also
studied at the Lee Strasberg Institute. Since making her screen
debut in a small role in Rob Reiner's disastrous North (1994),
the young actress has been continuously working. She played one
of Eric Schaeffer's wise charges in If Lucy Fell (1996) and had
one of her better roles to date in Manny & Lo (1996).
As Amanda (Manny), a rather sensible 11 year old who escapes
from a foster home and runs away with her 16-year old sister, the
young actress received critical praise. She says that was the
first character of any substance she did, and remains one of her
favourite film experiences. "Manny was definitely a
character as such, a real person." That role led directly to
her casting in the high profile 1997 release Home Alone 3.
Johansson was only too aware of the differences between doing a
small independent film and big-budget studio movies. "When
you're doing an independent film, it's more like you're doing it
just for the love of film making, whereas a lot of the times when
you tend to do big-budget movies, it's more about getting the
money back and making stars out of people."
Perhaps the young actress found a happy medium as co-star of
director/actor Robert Redford's highly-anticipated urban western,
The Horse Whisperer, playing Grace, a youngster who suffers a
tragic riding accident that scars both her and her beloved horse
physically and emotionally. Her self-absorbed mother (Kristin
Scott Thomas) turns to a quiet horse trainer (Robert Redford) for
assistance.
"What I learnt from
him is patience... and simplicity." on Robert Redford
Johansson hadn't read the hugely popular novel on which the
movie was based, but was sent the screenplay while she was
working on Home Alone 3. "I just thought what an incredible
role it was, and I remember turning to my mom, and saying:
whoever gets this role is the luckiest girl in the entire
world." Following a meeting with the film's casting
director, Johansson had a two hour meeting with Redford, whose
Sundance Institute had actually helped develop Manny and Lo, a
happy coincidence. With the teenage role of a lifetime, she
recalls being able to identify with "the reality of this
character which is something you don't see. When you get a script
and it's a real, live person that you're reading, THAT'S what
makes it so appealing, that's what you identify with."
What she had more difficulty identifying with, however, were
the horse aspects of the movie, being a city girl, through and
through. "I'd never ridden one before, and it was
interesting to learn about that." Johansson also recalls
that she learnt to "appreciate the relationship between
horse and rider. I've always admired them from afar, but never
had the chance to really study them this close before." For
the 13-year old actress, making The Horse Whisperer was very much
a learning experience, and she says that she also learnt a lot
from Redford the director, and Redford the actor. "What I
learnt from him is patience, as he's such a very patient person,
and also simplicity. He keeps everything very simple and it
really helps to define the dialogue and the film itself."
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