The former Russian agent finally gives us an unredacted peek into her ledger with her long-awaited solo film.
This story was originally published on March 10, 2020.
She moves like she’s been doing this for a decade because she has.
But this is something new: There’s no Captain America or Hawkeye to assist her, no S.H.I.E.L.D.
backup waiting out of sight.
Then, just as Johansson pulls on her last glove with a satisfying snap…darkness.
The studio has lost power; in the dark, someone calls out for flashlights.
Natasha’s mission will have to wait a little while longer but that’s all right.
Black Widow knows how to wait.
Among them is Romanoff, the scarlet-haired superspy without superpowers.
shesacrificed herself to thwart Thanosin last year’sAvengers: Endgame.
“How does she become this full person from all these broken pieces?”
“I was like, I think I’m good,” Johansson admits.
“If we [were] going to do this, it had to be creatively fulfilling.
I’ve been working for such a long time, and I have to feel like I’m challenged.
I don’t want to do the same thing that I’d already done before.”
Much ofBlack Widowpeels away that facade.
“How does she get her Widow stingers for the first time?
How did she learn to do a flip?
That doesn’t matter.”
Whatdoesmatter is the people surrounding Natasha and how they helped shape her sense of self.
There’s Weisz as the mysterious Melina, who also trained as a Widow.
(Like many sisters, they settle differences by beating the crap out of each other.)
And there’sDavid Harbouras Alexei, a.k.a.
To play that familial bond, the cast had to get close reallyclose.
We just would not have been able to do it.
The key, Johansson argues, is not just casting female heroes but telling distinctly female stories.
“She has emotional intelligence that has allowed her to survive without any real superpowers.
She’s someone who is a problem-solver.
She’s a pragmatic person.
I think a lot of those qualities are inherently female.”
In the meantime, Johansson has to finish this female-superhero movie.
As the release date nears, she and Shortland have been in the edit bay making last-minute tweaks.
“And when we came off the stage we held hands, and she was just as nervous.”
I think it’s just as you get older, you trust yourself more."
After all, sometimes spies get the best results not by donning disguises but by stripping them away.
