Scarlett Johansson, known for her iconic fighting and action roles throughout her Hollywood career had once starred in a romantic comedy with Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Although it is a bit hard to imagine Johansson in a sun dress sitting under the sun, what’s more, difficult was to get the movie from development into an actual theatrical release!

Stating the harshness of Hollywood censor boards, Scarlett Johansson stated in an interview that people weren’t even allowed to “show a b**b on the screen”. The statements came before the Black Widow actress went on to state that Hollywood had groomed her for explicit content ever since the beginning!

Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow in the MCU.

Scarlett Johansson Criticizes The Hollywood Censor Board

Before she made some controversial remarks about the Hollywood system and allegations of grooming her to be explicit in her performance, Scarlett Johansson once complained that Hollywood censor boards were too tight.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Scarlett Johansson in Don Jon (2013).

Talking about the 2013 movie Don Jon, the Jojo Rabbit actress starred alongside Joseph Gordon-Levitt in his directorial debut, and the film was not made for everyone. Being a romantic comedy, Don Jon followed the story of…Don Jon (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a person addicted to watching p*rn, and his girlfriend Barbara (Scarlett Johansson) trying to work out a relationship where they both find happiness.

Being an out-of-the-box movie, Johansson had once stated that the Hollywood censor board system was too tight. She further told that we live in a conservative society where even showcasing a b**b was considered taboo!
“It’s less of a faux pas now than it was before.But oddly in other ways we’re quite conservative [as a society]. You can’t even show a b–b on the screen without being totally rejected by the [ratings] board, making it basically impossible for anyone to see your film. It’s a subject that might be less of a hot topic, something we can talk about in some ways. But in other ways, we live in a very conservative society.”
This wasn’t all since Joseph Gordon-Levitt also talked about how difficult it was for the film to go on air and to bring the producers on board. Gordon-Levitt stated that Scarlett Johansson was the pulling factor of the movie and that after she was confirmed, the producers started piling money for the film.

Scarlett Johansson Was The Pulling Factor of Don Jon

Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson in a still from Lost In Translation

As stated earlier, Don Jon was not your average rom-com movie. With the movie being the directorial debut of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, there was a sense of mistrust in the actor/director. According to 500 Days of Summer actor, Scarlett Johansson was the pulling factor of the movie and she was the one who essentially got the producers onboard the film.
“Because I’d been in Inception, and because The Dark Knight Rises hadn’t come out yet, but it was going to come out, and because of Scarlett’s name, and because The Avengers was going to come out, when she and I were attached to the script, that was it. I owe a great deal of credit to Scarlett, who got on board before anybody, before we even had our financing. Her making that commitment was a huge part of us being able to do it.”
After the movie was released in 2013, Don Jon went on to earn an average rating of 6.5/10 on IMDB but a strong rating of 80% on Rotten Tomatoes. The Scarlett Johansson and Joseph Gordon-Levitt starrer Don Jon is available to stream on Hulu.

Source: Entertainment Weekly