Failing Upward

Scarlett Johansson modelling for L’Oreal

A couple days ago, I read an article in Entertainment Weekly’s “Popwatch” about actors with “failing upward syndrome” — that is, actors who, despite their lack of hit movies to sustain any sort of fan base, continue to be handed bigger and better roles until Hollywood finally gives up on trying to prop them up as The Next Big Thing. Some of the names listed provoke little argument: Gretchen Mol, Kate Hudson, Penelope Cruz, Matthew McConaughey, Colin Farrell. One, namely Winona Ryder, gave me pause before I conceded (Heathers was a long, long time ago, after all). But Scarlett Johansson? Can it be true?

Yes, sadly, it can. Ghost World and Lost in Translation, while critically acclaimed, were not huge movies, and in any case are far from recent. Scarlett may be a good actress (I have mixed feelings about this myself), but that’s not what’s keeping her career afloat; it’s that everyone on the planet — men, women, and four-legged critters — is spellbound by her unfathomably lucky genetics.

But given the choice between good and lucky, to borrow the central theme of Match Point, Scarlett has made the critical error made by so many genetically lucky actresses before her of picking good. “Scarlett wants to ditch her sexy image and become a more serious actress,” an insider told the Boston Metro last May regarding her $5 million ad campaign with L’Oreal. “She doesn’t want to use her body anymore — she has talent and wants to be recognized for that.”

That kind of declaration is usually the beginning of the end for anyone in an industry where thousands of other less demanding individuals would be happy to take their place. “[L’Oreal is] getting a bit fed up that Scarlett is being so precious,” another source told the Boston Metro. “She needs to [change] her ideas quickly or they might want some of that cash back.”

On this point, I think, L’Oreal speaks for us all.