Scarlett Johansson Nearly Quit Acting—How Close We Came to Losing Black Widow
From Broadway stages to global stardom, Scarlett Johansson exploded with her adult breakout in the 2003 film Lost in Translation alongside Bill Murray—then rocketed into the late 2000s, snagging the roles that made her Hollywood’s hottest ticket.
Scarlett Johansson has one of those careers that reads like a whiplash timeline: prodigy on stage, kid actor in movies, a breakout as a teenager, a long stretch of being pigeonholed, and then a franchise turn that changed everything. The twist? The thing a lot of people love most about her now almost got her shut out at the start.
The voice that nearly cost her the job
Johansson trained as a singer because she wanted to do musical theater. One problem: her voice was already deeper than most casting folks wanted from a little kid. A talent agent even signed her brother instead of her. When she pivoted to commercial auditions, she kept hearing the same note: do you have a sore throat?
She hated the cattle-call grind so much that, as she once put it, she had zero interest in hawking bread on camera. So she doubled down on acting classes and, at 8, landed an off-Broadway gig in 'Sophistry' with Ethan Hawke. The film debut came a year later with 'North,' followed by teen turns in 'The Horse Whisperer' and 'Ghost World.' The adult breakout arrived with Sofia Coppola’s 'Lost in Translation' in 2003, opposite Bill Murray — where that breezy, slightly husky delivery people now love was front and center.
Typecast to death, to the point of almost quitting
For years after 'Lost in Translation' and 'Girl with a Pearl Earring,' the industry kept trying to make Johansson into someone else’s fantasy. She got the seductress label with 'Match Point' in 2005 and kept being offered variations on 'the girlfriend,' 'the other woman,' or the bombshell. She did some of those parts — 'He’s Just Not That Into You' included — but the cycle wasn’t creatively satisfying, and the roles she actually wanted weren’t landing.
'After Lost in Translation, every role that I was offered for years was the girlfriend, the other woman, a sex object — I couldn’t get out of the cycle.'
Two big rejections pushed her to the brink: first, she lost out on 'Iron Man 2' (more on that in a second), and then Alfonso Cuarón’s 'Gravity' slipped away too. That one stung. She’s said it made her wonder if she was even doing the right job.
Black Widow changes the math
Here’s the funny part: the 'Iron Man 2' door that slammed in her face swung right back open. Emily Blunt was initially set to play Natasha Romanoff but had to drop out, and Johansson stepped in. The role was basically an extended cameo, and she’s been candid that it wasn’t going to blow anyone’s mind as written — but there was room to build something in future films. She was right.
Right after that, she went back to the stage in the Tony-winning 'A View from the Bridge,' then reset her onscreen path with 'Her' and 'Under the Skin.' That stretch is where she says she remembered why she loves the job. From there, it was off to the races: eight more MCU entries, two Oscar nominations in the same year ('Marriage Story' and 'Jojo Rabbit'), and the kind of leverage that lets you be picky and still command $10–$20 million.
The big-picture numbers
Across her filmography, Johansson’s movies have hauled in roughly $15.18 billion worldwide, which puts her among Hollywood’s all-time box office heavyweights. And lately, the headline-grabbing stuff hasn’t slowed down: her franchise swing 'Jurassic World Rebirth' has reportedly pulled in $868.9 million, topping the likes of Marvel’s 'The Fantastic Four: First Steps' and DC’s 'Superman' at the box office, according to Box Office Mojo.
What Marvel paid her
If you like the nuts-and-bolts stuff, here’s how her MCU paychecks reportedly stacked up. Keep in mind the studio back-end bonuses are murky and not publicly confirmed, so this is the best available snapshot:
- Iron Man 2: $400,000
- The Avengers: $1 million
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier: unknown (commonly estimated $5–15 million)
- Avengers: Age of Ultron: $20 million
- Captain America: Civil War: $15 million
- Avengers: Infinity War: $15 million
- Avengers: Endgame: $20 million
- Black Widow: $20 million
That puts her MCU haul somewhere around $95–$105 million before any back-end. She also famously sued Disney over 'Black Widow' going to streaming just 45 days after theaters, arguing it cost her box office-linked bonuses. They settled out of court, and she reportedly walked away with about $40 million.
The irony of the voice
The same voice that made casting directors nervous when she was a kid turned into an asset later — people still rave about her work as the AI in 'Her.' It’s a neat full-circle detail for someone who had to push through a lot of narrowly defined ideas of what she should be. If you want to revisit the Marvel run that reset her career, her MCU films are streaming on Disney+.