Amid the ongoing legal and public relations battle between Disney and Scarlett Johansson, Women in Film, Los Angeles, ReFrame and Time’s Up, along with her talent agency CAA have come out in support of the ‘Black Widow’ actor.
The USD 319.8 billion entertainment media conglomerate had called Johansson’s ‘Black Widow’ breach of contract lawsuit a “callous disregard for the horrific and prolonged global effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.”
Disney also disclosed her base salary of USD 20M for the Marvel Cinematic Universe film exclaiming that the Disney Plus with Premier Access will compensate her well enough.
According to Deadline, responding to this, the advocacy organisations, issued a joint statement calling Disney’s characterisation of Scarlett Johansson a “gendered character attack.”
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The statement read, “While we take no position on the business issues in the litigation between Scarlett Johansson and The Walt Disney Company, we stand firmly against Disney’s recent statement which attempts to characterize Johansson as insensitive or selfish for defending her contractual business rights.”
Calling out Disney, the statement further continued, “This gendered character attack has no place in a business dispute and contributes to an environment in which women and girls are perceived as less able than men to protect their own interests without facing ad hominem criticism.”
The two-time Oscar nominee’s agency, CAA’s co-chairman Bryan Lourd also blasted Disney earlier in a statement for shaming her publicly and “deliberately” moving “the revenue stream and profits” of ‘Black Widow’ “to the Disney Plus side of the company leaving artistic and financial partners out of their new equation.” He also slammed the media conglomerate for leaking her salary in “an attempt to weaponize her success as an artist and businesswoman.”
