Trending badgeTrendingPosted 1 hour agoSubscribe to Screen Time NewsletterCaret Down7 Celebrities Discuss The Disgusting Realities Of Being Sexualized In Hollywood And The Media"It can be quite offensive."by Morgan MurrellBuzzFeed StaffFacebookPinterestLink 1. Scarlett Johansson John Nacion / Variety via Getty Images During the 500th episode of the Armchair Expert podcast with cohosts Dax Shepard and Monica Padman, Scarlett opened up about being hypersexualized and feeling "pigeonholed" early on in her career.
Growing up in New York and working as a child actor, Scarlett said she "definitely was in different situations that were not age-appropriate," but her mother was always "really good at protecting" her from a lot of that stuff. But, like with any parent, she couldn't shield her from everything. She noted that her perceived maturity led her to be hypersexualized, despite that being the opposite of her actual personality. "Because I think everybody thought I was older and I'd been [acting] for a long time and then I got kind of pigeonholed into this weird hyper-sexualized thing," she added. "It was like, that's the kind of career you have. These are the roles you've played, and I was like, 'This is it, I guess.'" NBC / Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty Images She thought it was "scary at the time" because she knew the shelf life for typecast roles like that for women in Hollywood didn't last long, and she also didn't want it to limit her as an actor.
Scarlett noted that her trajectory in Hollywood looked really different compared to her The Other Boleyn Girl co-star, Natalie Portman, when the two were discussing working together on the popular 2008 film: "[Portman] also was saying it kind of fucked her up because she wasn't that person. She wasn't a prude, buttoned-up girl next door," but based on her looks, that's the narrative Hollywood ran with for her.
The Jurassic World Rebirth star also reflected on young female actors today, and how she's proud that the climate in Hollywood has shifted slightly for female actors. Citing actors like Zendaya and Florence Pugh, who played her sister in Black Widow, Scarlett said, "I see younger actors that are in their 20s, it feels like they're allowed to be all these different things," she said. "We're not even allowed to really pigeonhole actors anymore." 2. Kit Harington John Nacion / Variety via Getty Images Although appreciative of the opportunities he's been given since starring in the hit HBO series Game of Thrones, Kit wasn't fond of the sexual attention he was receiving. He spoke candidly about inappropriate interactions that came from his newly sexualized image, and why he feels being a "hunk" is "demeaning." "To always be put on a pedestal as a hunk is slightly demeaning," Kit said. "It really is, and it's in the same way as it is for women. When an actor is seen only for her physical beauty, it can be quite offensive." HBO "Well, it's not just men that can be inappropriate sexually; women can be as well," he added. "I'm in a successful TV show in a kind of leading man way, and it can sometimes feel like your art is being put to one side for your sex appeal. And I don't like that.""In this position, you get asked a lot, 'Do you like being a heartthrob? Do you like being a hunk?' Well, my answer is, 'That's not what I got into it for.'" 3. Jennifer Love Hewitt Michael Buckner / Getty Images Jennifer was deemed a "sex symbol" when she was just a teenager after she skyrocketed to stardom as Sarah Reeves-Merrin in Party of Five, and later as Julie James in I Know What You Did Last Summer. Jennifer was a mere 16 years old at the time she landed on Party of Five. The now-46-year-old actor remembered looking back on her career, and the uncomfortable situations she was put in because of the "image" Hollywood created for her, including men talking about her body right in front of her. (C)Columbia Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection "There were grown men talking to me at 16 about my breasts just openly on a talk show, and people were laughing about it," Jennifer said on Mayim Bialik's Breakdown podcast (via Variety). "I don't even remember that. I really didn't take that part in, but in hindsight it was really strange I think to become a sex symbol sort of for people before I even knew what that was.""I was on the cover of Maxim magazine, and people would openly walk up and be like, 'I took your magazine with me on a trip last week.' I didn't know what that meant, you know what I mean? It's kind of gross. I think later it sort of hit me more, the kind of things that I probably went through somewhere. But at the time, it felt very innocent and exciting and fun." 4. Jacob Elordi Don Arnold / WireImage After all three movies in The Kissing Booth trilogy were released, Jacob didn't hold back his feelings about what it was like to film them or how he viewed the rom-coms overall. Jacob called the movies "ridiculous." In fact, he admitted he didn't even want to make those movies. Bu