Scarlett Johansson has said she was "extremely disappointed" by Disney branding her "callous" during her multi-million dollar lawsuit against them.
The actress sued the conglomerate over the release of Marvel film Black Widow in 2021 blaming them for breach of contract.
Johansson’s contract for the film stated that it be exclusively shown in theatres with backend compensation - a share of profits -for her on top of her $20 million salary.
However, along with a theatre release, Disney also aired Black Widow on its streaming site Disney+ amid the pandemic in July 2021.
Johansson, who is currently starring alongside Channing Tatum in critically panned film Fly Me To The Moon, argued that the studio moving the film to Disney+ would result in her losing out on millions of dollars in backend compensation.
Disney hit back by stating that Johansson had a “callous disregard” for the Covid pandemic as many people would not want to head to theatres and would welcome the option to stream the film at home.
Johansson settled the lawsuit for what industry insiders claim is an additional $20 million on top of her original fee.
Now, Johansson is insisting that she does not have a “grudge” against Disney.
“I don’t hold a grudge,” she told The New York Times. “I think it was just poor judgement and poor leadership at that time.
"It just felt very unprofessional to me, the entire ordeal. And honestly, I was incredibly disappointed, especially because I was holding out hope until, finally, my team was like, ‘You have to act.'”
Johansson is now also taking legal action against OpenAI after the company allegedly copied her voice for their platform.
The New York Times asked her if OpenAI CEO Sam Altman would make a good Marvel villain, to which replied, “I guess he would. Maybe with a robotic arm.”
Johansson said in a statement that Altman contacted her agents two days before the release of ChatGPT 4.0 asking her to reconsider letting the service use her voice. Shortly after, a demo featuring the allegedly Johansson-inspired Sky voice was launched.
Altman claimed that the voice was “never intended to resemble” Johansson’s.
“Out of respect for Ms. Johansson, we have paused using Sky’s voice in our products,” he said. “We are sorry to Ms. Johansson that we didn’t communicate better.”
