Bagging a role in a Hollywood film is often a hit-or-miss situation, you either get it or you don’t. And then there are times when actors end up passing a role to someone else only for it to become an astronomical hit. Irrespective of that though, there always tends to be a treasure of missed opportunities for celebrities in the film industry, and that’s exactly what happened with Scarlett Johansson too.
Even after having a fortune of $165 million, two Academy Award nominations, and an arsenal of other accolades that she’s won, the Black Widow star was still rejected for a number of roles, including Joe Johnston’s Jumanji which ultimately ended up going to Kirsten Dunst.
Scarlett Johansson Lost Jumanji (1995) to Kirsten Dunst
Starring Robin Williams, Bradley Pierce, and Kirsten Dunst, Jumanji was a classic adventure/fantasy film and a commercial success after it grossed $263 million worldwide on a budget of $65 million.
Named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time, Scarlett Johansson had auditioned to play Judy Shepherd in the film, the role which was later signed off to Dunst. Though she lost the project to the Spider-Man actress, Johansson claimed that she didn’t wallow about it all too much given how she was just a kid at the time. Even so, the Lucy star didn’t miss the movie and went to watch it in the cinema when it was released.
“That is true, yeah. I wasn’t bitter enough then,” Johansson said during an appearance on The Howard Stern Show. “Now, I’m bitter.”
Sure, the MCU actress missed out on her fair share of major films, but the one that she’d wanted to be a part of the most was David Fincher’s thriller, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Back then though, she was simply considered to be “too beautiful” to star as the traumatized and antisocial Lisbeth Salander in the film. But as per the 38-year-old actress, the reality behind the situation had been quite different.
The Real Reason Why Scarlett Johansson Didn’t Star in David Fincher’s Movie
Based on a novel of the same name by Swedish author Stieg Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was a neo-noir psychological thriller starring Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig which opened up to glowing critical reviews and a gigantic profit of about $240 million at the global box office.
Fincher is a renowned film director and has helmed some of the most popular Hollywood projects including 1999’s Fight Club, 2007’s mystery/thriller titled Zodiac, and Ben Affleck-led Gone Girl, to name a few. And Johansson met up with the 60-year-old director herself at the time of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, only for her to get rejected.
“That’s not exactly how it went,” the Lost in Translation star said in reference to the rumor which claimed that she didn’t get the role for being “too beautiful.” Johansson explained how Fincher said she’d have to be “totally uncaring” of herself to portray Lisbeth in the 2011 movie and though she was ready to, the latter didn’t believe she could. “I said, ‘I will. I can be that person’ and he was like, ‘No you can’t.'”
“I really, really wanted that film because I felt I had something to contribute to it,” Johansson said. “And I think Fincher just had a different vision for that character and Rooney Mara is, honestly, so perfect in it.”
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo can be streamed on Netflix.
Source: YouTube
