Scarlett Johansson admits she has made 'embarrassing' mistakes in the past

Scarlett Johansson says she has "made a career out of" controversary and finds some of her past comments and decisions "embarrassing". Photo / Getty images

With an unfortunate habit of making comments that don't sit well with others, not to mention taking some questionable roles that have seen her receive widespread backlash, Scarlett Johansson is no stranger to controversy.

The 36-year-old actress has previously sparked a backlash after making positive comments about her frequent collaborator, director Woody Allen - who has denied allegations of abusing his adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow, when she was just seven years old - as well as for her casting in both Ghost in the Shell, a movie adaptation of a Japanese manga series and Rub & Tug, in which she was set to play a transgender man before withdrawing over "ethical questions raised" about her taking the role.

And now Scarlett has admitted she will always "have opinions", even if reflecting on them afterwards can be "embarrassing", but she insisted she's only human.

Discussing her apparent attraction to controversy, she joked to The Gentlewoman magazine: "Yeah. I've made a career out of it."

She then added: "I'm going to have opinions about things, because that's just who I am.
"I mean, everyone has a hard time admitting when they're wrong about stuff, and for all of that to come out publicly, it can be embarrassing.

"To have the experience of, 'wow, I was really off mark there', or I wasn't looking at the big picture, or I was inconsiderate ... I'm also a person."

The Black Widow star insisted she doesn't think "actors have obligations to have a public role in society" and although everyone expects judgement, she doesn't feel it is "normal" to be as "exposed" as much as she is.

She said: "The idea that you're obligated to because you're in the public eye is unfair. You didn't choose to be a politician, you're an actor.

"Of course, whatever you say, whether it's politically correct or not, any statement you make, or how you live your life, people are obviously going to take issue with it.

"We judge each other all the time. We judge ourselves constantly. I think people equate that connectivity to being self-aware.

"To me, it's different from being self-aware. And reacting to everything that's coming at them through this f****** thing [a phone] —your sense of reality is completely skewed.
"It's not normal to be that exposed. You can be exposed whenever you're in the public eye, but to then be on the receiving end, like a raw nerve, of all this stuff back? It's too much!"