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Man, Meat and Bêtes-Machines: Scarlett Johansson in Under the Skin

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Screening Scarlett Johansson

Abstract

This chapter examines how Scarlett Johansson’s fame and body facilitate the exploration of personhood in Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013). Johansson’s status as a global sex symbol makes her a fitting choice to play the role of a predatory alien seductress. Her persona is also an important device in the film’s exploration of human bodies and minds. Conducting a close analysis of the film’s narrative and mise-en-scène—and Johansson’s vital place within them—this chapter considers how Johansson’s much-desired body becomes the focal point for the film’s anxiety about the mind/body split and humanity’s corporeal vulnerability.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Romney’s comments invite comparisons between Under the Skin and The Man Who Fell to Earth (Nicolas Roeg, 1976), in which David Bowie plays an alien visitor. The phenomenon of Johansson’s celebrity is as key to Under the Skin as Bowie’s is central in Roeg’s film. The Man Who Fell to Earth utilizes Bowie’s charisma as a shorthand for his alien otherworldliness, just as Under the Skin deploys Johansson’s beauty to convey a similar sense of otherness.

  2. 2.

    For an account of Johansson’s construction as the “sexiest woman alive,” see Chapter 1 in this volume.

  3. 3.

    There is a notable counter-discourse regarding Johansson, frequently appearing in interviews, which constructs her as an intelligent and wry person in addition to a highly desirable individual. For instance, in a profile for Esquire, A. J. Jacobs (2006) describes her as “always smart and friendly,” but not before noting she was recently voted “best pair of breasts in Hollywood” (indeed, Jacobs opens the article with this information). Woody Allen also describes Johansson as smart, but does so in a way that frames her intelligence in the context of her desirability: “It’s very hard to be extra witty around a sexually overwhelming, beautiful young woman who is wittier than you are,” he says (qtd. in Hill 2007). Such remarks try to redress the emphasis on Johansson’s sexual appeal, yet, in many cases, they only serve to draw attention back to her body.

  4. 4.

    The idea that the femme fatale has no inner life has been challenged. Notably, Julie Grossman (2007) insists that this description of the classic noir femme fatale is actually premised on a misreading of the character. She argues that femmes fatales in 1930s and 1940s thrillers usually have very clear motivations, such as a desire for economic independence. Grossman argues that the misreading of the femme fatale has occurred because “critics have settled in their discussion of women in noir on the few female characters who conform to the notion of the quintessential femme fatale (as she is represented by Phyllis Dietrichson [Double Indemnity], Kathie Moffett [Out of the Past], and Brigid O’Shaughnessy [The Maltese Falcon])” (2007, 19). In spite of this, however, the image of the passive, unconscious woman has taken on an enduring significance in the popular cultural imagination. Whether it is a misreading or otherwise, Johansson’s character in Under the Skin evokes the now-entrenched idea of the femme fatale as an enigma.

  5. 5.

    It is important to acknowledge, as Doane (1991) does, that Freud borrowed the phrase “dark continent” from colonialist texts, where it is used to refer to the continent of Africa. In such works, Africa was framed as both metaphorically dark (undiscovered and “uncivilised”) as well as literally dark (in terms of the colour of the inhabitants’ skin). The phrase was used by Freud to characterise female sexuality as confounding: “an unexplored territory, an enigmatic, unknowable place concealed from the theoretical gaze and hence the epistemological power of the psychoanalyst” (Doane 1991, 209). A consideration of the racial connotations in Under the Skin is beyond the scope of this chapter, although it is taken up within Redmond’s contribution to this volume.

  6. 6.

    Another similarity between the robotic housewives of Stepford and Johansson’s alien is that their repetitive phrases are often highly gendered in nature: the wives talk almost exclusively about domestic activities, whereas Johansson’s alien repeats bland flirtatious overtures. In such moments, both films wryly show how gender is produced through repetitive performance (quite literally in each instance). As horror films, they make this point in ways that unsettle the spectator.

  7. 7.

    Black Widow is also, not incidentally, the alias of the character that Johansson portrays in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Natasha Romanoff. In this series, Black Widow is a Russian spy who defects to become an agent of SHIELD (Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division). As the alias suggests, Romanoff is known to use her sexuality for the purposes of espionage.

  8. 8.

    Johansson regularly reminds journalists that she is a professional performer with more to her character than her sex appeal. In fact, in an interview with Barbara Walters, Johansson (2014) denies ever seeking sex symbol status: “I never put on a sexy face, so I don’t know what it means to act seductive.” She also notes that she wants to be thought of as “an actor for hire” rather than a desired object.

  9. 9.

    In addition to this more general physical vulnerability, the protagonist of Under the Skin also becomes sexually vulnerable due to her gendered body. When a man attempts to assault her at the film’s conclusion, the narrative makes a bitter comment on the reality of women’s experience: occupying a female body entails increased vulnerability to sexual violation.

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Acknowledgments

This chapter was completed with the support of the Small Grants Program in the School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry, Curtin University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Screen Arts and Cultural Studies, Curtin University, Bentley, WA, Australia

    Janice Loreck

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  1. Janice Loreck
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Screen Arts and Cultural Studies, Curtin University, Bentley, WA, Australia

    Janice Loreck

  2. Film and Screen Studies, Monash University, Caulfield, VIC, Australia

    Whitney Monaghan

  3. Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia

    Kirsten Stevens

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Loreck, J. (2019). Man, Meat and Bêtes-Machines: Scarlett Johansson in Under the Skin. In: Loreck, J., Monaghan, W., Stevens, K. (eds) Screening Scarlett Johansson. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33196-2_9

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