Scarlett Johansson slams 'hypersexualisation' of Black Widow character in Iron Man 2

The star of Marvel's upcoming Black Widow film has criticised how her character was treated in the past. Photo / Getty Images

Scarlett Johansson is grateful her Marvel alter ego Natasha Romanoff is no longer "hyper-sexualised".

The 36-year-old actress has played the role of Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for more than a decade after making her debut as the character in 2010 film Iron Man 2.

And Scarlett - who reprises the role for a seventh time in upcoming film Black Widow - is pleased that the way the character is treated and portrayed on screen has evolved since that first cinematic appearance, which featured Robert Downey Jr's Tony Stark talking about Romanoff as a "piece of a**".

Discussing how her own maturing as a woman has affected the portrayal of the character, she said: "Obviously, 10 years have passed and things have happened and I have a much different, more evolved understanding of myself. As a woman, I'm in a different place in my life, you know? And I felt more forgiving of myself, as a woman, and not — sometimes probably not enough. I'm more accepting of myself, I think.

"All of that is related to that move away from the kind of hyper-sexualisation of this character and, I mean, you look back at Iron Man 2 and while it was really fun and had a lot of great moments in it, the character is so sexualised, you know? Really talked about like she's a piece of something, like a possession or a thing or whatever — like a piece of a**, really.

"And Tony even refers to her as something like that at one point ... [he says] 'I want some'. Yeah and at one point calls her a piece of meat and maybe at that time that actually felt like a compliment. You know what I mean?"

Scarlett thinks that 11 years ago she would have accepted a comment like that as a compliment as a young woman, but now she wouldn't as she understands her "self-worth".

The BAFTA-winning star is pleased that the world is evolving and now men and woman know that derogatory sexual comments are no longer acceptable.

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Continuing her discussion about Tony's line in the Iron Man 2 script with Collider.com, she said: "Because my thinking was different. Maybe I even would have, you know, my own self-worth was probably measured against that type of comment or, like a lot of young women, you come into your own and you understand your own self-worth. It's changing now.

"Now people, young girls, are getting a much more positive message, but it's been incredible to be a part of that shift and be able to come out the other side and be a part of that old story, but also progress. Evolve. I think it's pretty cool."

Black Widow - which is released in cinemas on July 9 - is set prior to Scarlett's character being killed off in Avengers: Endgame but the Jojo Rabbit actress insists that her alter ego's fate did not alter her mindset during the project.

Scarlett said: "This movie became more of a reality, I guess, when we were shooting Avengers: Infinity War, so I did know about the character's fate."