Scarlett Johansson is renowned as one of the most prominent actresses in the entertainment industry, and rightly so. A significant personality of her generation, she never backs down from fulfilling whatever her role requires of her, even if it means she has to go fully undressed. In fact, she is one to even go to extremes just for the sake of her character, even adding her own personal touch to make her portrayal look real.
Scarlett Johansson
While her realistic approach is one of the biggest reasons why fans absolutely love her remarkable works on-screen, she isn’t allowed to add her personal touch every time, considering how once Johansson demanded to go topless for her $126 million film The Island to make the scene look real, but her demand was rejected by the movie’s director, Michael Bay.
Scarlett Johansson Demanded To Go Topless For One Scene In The Island
Scarlett Johansson with Ewan McGregor in a still from The Island (2005)
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Although it was still only the beginning of her career, Scarlett Johansson was already willing to risk it all for her films. The same happened on the sets of The Island: Johansson had to shoot an intimate scene with her co-star Ewan McGregor, for which she was handed a black bra to cover herself so that the $126 million movie could get a PG-13 rating as marketed. The actress, however, refused.
Thinking it would be ridiculous to do so, she asked director Michael Bay if she could go topless to make the scene look realistic. When her request got rejected, she decided not to show up and stay away when the scene was preparing to be shot.
Talking about the incident at the premiere of The Island, Bay recalled tracking her down and finding Johansson in her trailer (via Digital Spy):
“She’s standing there, and she says, ‘I’m not wearing this cheap… bra. I’m going n-ked.’”
But the filmmaker wasn’t having it.
“I said, ‘It’s PG-13, you have to wear the bra.’”
While she did end up wearing the bra for the scene, Scarlett Johansson wasn’t all too happy about it, for she had her own genuine reason behind her request.
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The Reason Behind Scarlett Johansson’s Unusual Request
Scarlett Johansson in a still from The Island (2005)
Though her demand was turned down, Scarlett Johansson had her own valid reason behind such an unusual request. Explaining why she would rather wear nothing in the name of realism, Michael Bay recalled the Black Widow star saying,
“Women don’t normally sleep in a bra. I can’t wake up in this scene wearing a bra, it’s ridiculous.”
Nonetheless, even though she was right about it, the scene was shot with Johansson wearing the bra, and The Island was indeed rated PG-13 but faced no problems while getting released, thanks to ScarJo’s compliance.
Source: Digital Spy
