đ
Scarlett Johansson vs. Disney - The Future of Movie Stars - YouTube
Channel: The Take
[0]
âWe are talking about one
of the highest paid actresses
[3]
in the world
saying sheâs not
[4]
getting paid enoughâ
[5]
Itâs the lawsuit heard
around the entertainment world.
[8]
Scarlet Johansson's legal
and PR battle with Disney
[11]
over her Black Widow earnings
is unusually public and hostile
[15]
for a relationship between
an actor and a studio
[17]
whoâve done
nine movies together.
[19]
âI've had an incredible decade
working with my Marvel family.â
[25]
The star claims Disney
breached her contract
[27]
by releasing Black Widow
on Disney Plus at the same time
[30]
as its theatrical run,
[31]
thereby depriving her of
(she claims)
[33]
up to $50 million in bonuses
tied to box office milestones.
[37]
Disneyâs reply to the suit
was personal and kind of vicious.
[41]
They wrote,
[42]
âThe lawsuit is especially sad
and distressing
[45]
in its callous disregard
for the horrific and prolonged
[48]
global effects of the
Covid-19 pandemic.â
[51]
For all of us watching
and reading about this at home,
[53]
it may feel hard to root
for either party in this fight.
[57]
Does Scarjo need
another $50 million dollars?
[59]
Of course not,
and Disneyâs statement
[61]
made sure we all knew
sheâs already been paid
[63]
20 million â
but that figure
[65]
or her overall wealth
arenât really relevant
[68]
if Disney committed
to more in the contract.
[70]
âWhat we have here
is essentially
[72]
a pandemic created
labor dispute.â
[74]
The corporationâs portrait of her
as a âcallousâ woman
[77]
also seems tailored
to incite misogyny
[79]
as a distraction from
the apparent hypocrisy
[82]
of suggesting she neednât get paid
during a pandemic
[85]
even though their stock price
is on a healthy up-and-up.
[88]
The emotional intensity
surrounding this lawsuit signals
[91]
a bigger power struggle
thatâs gearing up
[93]
between stars and studios,
as both anxiously eye a future
[97]
where blockbusters increasingly live
on streaming platforms.
[117]
To some,
thereâs also hypocrisy
[119]
on Johanssonâs side:
framing suing Disney
[122]
as a âgirl powerâ move
is questionable
[124]
given the actorâs history of choices
that are tone-deaf,
[127]
if not indifferent
to the well-being of
[129]
other women or minorities.
[131]
Johansson has been active
in movements like Timeâs Up
[133]
and criticized some men,
but sheâs also defended Woody Allen
[137]
and said she,
âwould work with him anytimeâ
[139]
despite the credible allegations
that he abused Dylan Farrow.
[143]
ââI love Woody,
I believe him,
[145]
and I would
work with him anytime.ââ
[147]
She also drew criticism
for playing the lead
[150]
(originally Japanese) character
in 2017âs white-washed
[153]
Ghost in the Shell,
[154]
and initially accepting a role
playing a trans man in 2018âs Rub & Tug.
[159]
âShe said that any criticism
should be directed to
[161]
the representatives of
Felicity Huffman, Jared Leto,
[164]
and Jeffrey Tambor.â
[165]
On the other hand,
all this is exactly
[167]
what Disney wants us
to be thinking about.
[169]
Framing this as the latest
in her series of
[171]
unrelatable controversies
is part of the companyâs
[174]
calculated strategy to make
her action sound frivolous and greedy.
[178]
Meanwhile, in addition to Johanssonâs
history of cringe-y comments,
[182]
her gender undoubtedly shapes
the way that Disney feels
[184]
they can come after her.
[186]
Revealing the $20 million figure
to the public was an attempt to â
[189]
as her agent, Bryan Lourd, puts it â
[191]
âweaponize her success
as an artist and businesswoman.â
[194]
It is hard to imagine them
doing this to a male star,
[197]
even though some of them
have earned much more
[200]
for Marvel movies -
[200]
with Robert Downey Jr reportedly
earning $75 million
[204]
from Avengers Endgame.
[211]
âAnd I,
[213]
am...
[214]
Iron Man.â
[215]
Disneyâs language accusing
âcallousâ Scarjo
[217]
of not caring about the suffering
caused by the pandemic
[220]
is emotionally loaded,
playing into social assumptions
[223]
that itâs unnatural for a woman
specifically to be uncaring.
[227]
Arguing that Johansson shouldnât profit
during a pandemic is not very compelling
[231]
when you look at how Disneyâs fortunes
rose over 2020 and 2021,
[235]
its stock price rising above
its pre-pandemic level,
[238]
and Disney Plus subscriptions
going from 26.5 million subscribers
[243]
at the end of March 2020
to 103.6 million subscribers
[247]
at the end of April 2021.
[249]
Fans have already called out
this rhetoric as totally âhypocriticalâ
[253]
from a company thatâs still operating
its theme parks with few restrictions
[257]
in the midst of the ongoing pandemic.
[259]
âTaking to social media:
âI love you Disney
[262]
but reopening is a big mistake,
hashtag profits before peopleââ
[268]
According to feminist groups
Women in Film,
[270]
ReFrame and Timeâs Up,
Disneyâs statement,
[273]
âattempts to characterize Johansson
as insensitive or selfish
[276]
for defending her contractual
business rightsâŠâ
[279]
âThis gendered character attack
has no place in a business dispute
[283]
and contributes to an environment
in which women and girls
[286]
are perceived as less able
than men to protect their own interests
[289]
without facing
ad hominem criticism.â
[292]
Johansson tops many publicationsâ
lists of highest-paid actresses
[296]
for multiple years,
but the key word is âactressâ:
[300]
In 2019 she still took home
over 30 million less than
[303]
the highest-paid actor that year,
Dwayne Johnson,
[306]
and at least two other
MCU actors earned more.
Â
[308]
Meanwhile, though misogyny
is one of their tactics,
[311]
Disneyâs motives for
hitting back at Johansson â
[314]
and why this matters
so much to them â
[316]
are not really about her
being a woman,
[317]
but more about the emerging struggle
over how movie stars fit into
[321]
(and earn in)
a streaming-centric future.
[329]
Johanssonâs lawsuit argues
that the streaming release
[332]
of Black Widow earned value
for Disney Plus which isnât quantified
[336]
in the movieâs box office figures.
[338]
Quote,
[338]
âWhy would Disney forgo
hundreds of millions of dollars
[341]
in box office receipts
by releasing the picture in theatres
[344]
at a time when it knew
the theatrical market was âweak,â ...
[346]
Disney saw the opportunity
to promote its
[349]
flagship subscription service
using the picture and Ms. Johansson,
[352]
thereby attracting new
paying monthly subscribers,
[355]
retaining existing ones,
and establishing Disney Plus as
[358]
a must-have service in an
increasingly competitive marketplace.â
[362]
But the contracts of
todayâs movie stars
[364]
are built around
box office returns.
[366]
This is where this lawsuit
becomes so important to Disney â
[369]
its outcome sets a precedent
for how other actors will negotiate
[372]
their contractual rights
as more and more big releases
[375]
are created for streaming platforms.
[378]
âThis is probably the tip
of the iceberg
[381]
not just for the
Walt Disney company,
[384]
but for every single
major Hollywood studio.â
[387]
Itâs rumored that other actors
like Emma Stone and Emily Blunt
[390]
are considering similar lawsuits
for their roles in
[392]
Cruella and Jungle Cruise,
respectively,
[394]
and Blunt and John Krasinski
are reported to have sought compensation
[398]
from Paramount for shortening
the theatrical window for
[400]
A Quiet Place 2.
[401]
Complicating this picture is that
(unlike Warner Brothers
[404]
which released its 2021 movies
for free with an HBO max subscription,
[408]
and had to offer extra payments
to some actors as a result)
[411]
Disney Plus did charge an
on-demand fee for Black Widow â
[414]
a fact that entertainment attorney
John Sloss told the LA Times
[417]
weakens Johanssonâs case,
since those sales were
[420]
likely factored into the
formula for her compensation.
[423]
As the whole
media landscape shifts,
[425]
the leverage of
the movie star is declining;
[428]
franchises and earnings today
are driven by intellectual property
[431]
more than star power.
[432]
This trend can be overstated â
after all, every Marvel movie is packed
[436]
with stars who come with
hefty price tags â
[438]
yet, a number of those names
were created or launched
[442]
into a much higher stratosphere
of stardom by MCU movies.
Â
[446]
Since her Marvel work is now done,
Johansson is in a unique position
[449]
to bring this lawsuit,
[451]
while Black Widow is also
the first Marvel movie to come out
[454]
since the pandemic began.
[455]
But that brings us to:
The problem with Black Widow.
[462]
âAnd she is potentially
a very expensive
[465]
sexual harassment lawsuit
if you keep ogling her like that.â
[468]
This whole mess is
a strangely fitting end
[470]
to the trajectory of Black Widow,
a character who was created
[474]
and defined by men,
and sometimes let down by the MCU.
[478]
As the only leading female character
in the MCUâs early movies,
[481]
she was introduced in Iron Man 2
as a pretty objectified version
[485]
of the âsexy spyâ archetype.
[487]
The actor later reflected,
[488]
âthe character is so sexualisedâŠâ
[491]
âDid you model in Tokyo?
Because she modelled in Tokyo.â
[493]
â[She is] really talked about
like sheâs a piece of something,
[495]
like a possession or a thing [...]
like a piece of ass, really.â
[499]
âI want one.â
[499]
âNo.â
[500]
The franchise struggled
with her character
[502]
in notorious missteps like
the highly sexualized violence
[505]
in the interrogation scene
in Avengers,
[507]
having her call herself
a âMonsterâ
[509]
because she had
been sterilized
[511]
âYou still think youâre
the only monster on the team?â
[513]
and generally making her
feel like an unrealistically sexy
[517]
âcool girlâ type.
[518]
âLook, I really don't
want to hurt you.â
[520]
âI wouldn't stress about it.â
[521]
Oh, and here are just a few
of the really sexist questions
[524]
Johansson got asked
in countless press junkets:
[527]
âHow come you get like
the really interesting
[530]
existential question,
and I get the like
[532]
rabbit food question?â
[533]
âWhat would be the
fashion elements
[535]
Avengers: Infinity War
uses in the movie?â
[537]
âThe fashion elements?â
[538]
âYes, for theâŠâ
[539]
âI got the fashion question?â
[541]
âWere you able to wear
undergarments?â
[544]
âYouâre like the fifth person
thatâs asked me that today.â
[546]
âWell, noâŠâ
âWhat is going on?â
[548]
Despite some progress in her
characterâs evolution
[550]
over her nine films,
Natashaâs story still ultimately ended
[554]
with her dying for a male character â
and happy to do so
[558]
because he had a family while
(as we know) she couldnât have kids.
[561]
âTell my family I love them.â
[562]
âYou tell them yourself.â
[567]
When Black Widow did at last
get her standalone movie,
[570]
it came with the limitations
of being the prequel
[573]
for a dead character,
making its impact
[575]
on the overall MCU
feel a little slight.
[578]
Interestingly, the Black Widow movie
attempts to be a take on
[581]
feminist empowerment
[583]
âIt would have been
a missed opportunity
[585]
if this film didn't reflect,
you know,
[587]
what's going on in the zeitgeist,
that is female empowerment.â
[590]
The Washington Postâs
Alyssa Rosenberg writes that
[593]
âBlack Widowâ is about how men
molded Natasha and her âsister,â
[596]
Yelena Belova
[597]
into âavatars of hyperfemininity
employed to hypermasculine endsâŠ
[602]
a male-defined vision
of female superheroism.â
[604]
âWhy do you always do that thing?â
[606]
âDo what?â
[607]
âThat thing you do
when youâre fighting.
[609]
This thing that you do
when you whip your hair.â
[611]
Rosenberg points out that,
[613]
âThereâs an irony to this franchise
raising questions about what it means
[616]
for men to dictate
what female strength
[618]
and empowerment look like...
because Black Widow
[621]
is the invention of three men.â
[623]
and even if the movieâs
directed by a woman
[625]
(Cate Shortland),
[626]
the MCU is headed by Kevin Feige.
[628]
She also points out
the long history of men
[631]
defining female strength on screen,
and the fact that even Sheryl Sandbergâs
[635]
âLean Inâ feminism and
Sophia Amorusoâs âGirlbossâ
[638]
version are still based largely
on women partaking in
[641]
a male idea of success.
[643]
âAnd if two years ago you
didn't take a promotion
[646]
and some guy
next to you did
[648]
you're gonna be bored
because you should have
[651]
kept your foot on the gas pedal.â
[652]
Arguably, this is the problem
with Johanssonâs own feminism -
[656]
itâs a self-interested
âLean inâ Girlboss type,
[659]
defined by her trying to
compete for a spot in
[661]
a male-defined world.
[663]
Still, weâre all shaped and limited
by our experiences
[666]
and the environments
we came up in,
[667]
and Black Widow was that
lone female character
[670]
carrying the pressure of
transitioning the MCU toward
[673]
a more âfemaleâ future.
[675]
âIâm always picking up
after you boys.â
[678]
But the truth of this story
is that itâs actually not about ScarJo.
[682]
Disneyâs tactics here echo
larger trends to make
[685]
the human presence
and creatorâs agency
[688]
ever less important
to moviemaking.
[690]
As Martin Scorsese-inspired
debates around
[692]
the evils of âcontentâ reveal,
when you remove the feeling
[695]
that the artist matters to the art,
everything risks becoming
[699]
one long advertisement
for the brand.
[701]
âThese films now,
I think,
[703]
are more like theme rides
and it's a different experience
[707]
for an audience.â
Most Recent Videos:
You can go back to the homepage right here: Homepage