Actress
Scarlett Johansson was the biggest "wild card" addition to the
Iron Man sequel when she was added to the cast as the Black Widow. For many, she wasn't as proven an actress as the rest of the cast. Even director
Jon Favreau admitted to being a little nervous about how the fans would react to her:
"The jury was out on Scarlett for a while. You know there were some rumors about who we were going to cast and if it was going to work out with this one or that one and then we cast Scarlett and a lot of people were like, 'Really? Her hair's wrong, she's not the right build, she's not...' And, then she transformed herself and--I mean, she really did the work--and when those pictures came out online everybody was like, 'Wow.' So, I was like, 'Okay, that's not the big one,' you know?"
But, for Johansson, slipping into the Black Widow catsuit was more nerve-wracking than stepping onto the set with Hollywood heavyweight
Robert Downey Jr.:
"When I first saw it I was like 'I’ve got to get into that suit and I’ve got to start doing it now!' So it was just about seeing the suit and that was the challenge, getting into that suit and believing in the suit.
"Thankfully it went on pretty good. After the first time of being like 'Okay, it might not go on,' you learn to do quick change and I could get in and out of that thing in a flash really.
The tabloid media was almost as critical of Johansson as the fan community, with many rags reporting that she had to crash-diet to fit into the suit:
"There was this rumor mill cranking out stories that I had lost 14 pounds — I could never lose 14 pounds. I hate seeing these ridiculous articles where [tabloids] guess someone’s weight.
I can’t look at somebody who is 6 feet tall and 120 pounds and say, 'I’m going to get that body.' That’s just never going to happen."
Click HERE to see a picture gallery dedicated to Scarlett Johansson!!
Click HERE for an interview with Scarlett Johansson from SDCC '09!