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Scarlett Johansson Talks 'Winter Soldier,' Black Widow, and Working Out

Many questions were asked at the 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' press conference.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier is still a few weeks away from opening in the U.S. Last week was the press conference Beverly Hills and, as you can imagine, Scarlett Johansson had a lot of questions directed her way. Also at the press conference were Chris Evans, directors Joe and Anthony Russo, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Feige.

Here is what Scarlett had to say about the movie and the character of Black Widow.

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Trust is a big factor in the movie. There's a lot going on between the characters. Here's Scarlett Johansson on trust.

“I trust no one. I only trust whoever Sam Jackson trusts. I don’t know. I don’t think people have to prove themselves in order for me to trust them. I think I’m pretty, mostly trusting by nature. Usually I would say I wait for someone to prove me wrong. Then you never get it back! Once I don’t trust you, you’re out of the circle.”

We get to see a more human side to Black Widow. She goes through a lot. How has the character evolved? Has she changed?

“Have I changed? Well, other than being in physical therapy for the rest of my life…I think this is the first time we get to see Natasha. We saw a little of her in Avengers, we saw a little of her backstory. We’ll see more of that in Avengers 2.

In this film we really get to see Natasha as a person who gets up, gets ready for work in the morning and has a life outside of her job. Once she’s out of the suit, she’s a woman and she has her own kind of reality. Who knows how far that stretches. It’s not until the series of circumstances, as the plot unfolds, we find both Steve and Natasha questioning their own identities. They were pretty strong people with their beliefs or whatever twisted morals they had, maybe the Widow’s more than Cap’s. In some ways there’s kind of a cliffhanger because you really see that they’re just trusting the wave of having this huge moment of self-discovery. Hopefully, we’ll be able to track where that goes in the next installments."

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Scarlett on being a strong female character and role model.

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“I think Natasha is a bit of a reluctant superhero. She doesn’t necessarily have this really strong moral compass. Let’s not forget, she essentially started out as a mercenary. I don’t know if that makes her role model material.

In some ways, I will say, I think one of the things that attracts me to the character, she uses her feminine wiles as sort of a part of her job, but she doesn’t rely on her sexuality or physical appeal to get the job done. She’s extremely smart. She thinks on her feet. She’s a leader. She has a lot of foresight. Those are all qualities that I think are wonderful to celebrate. And, of course, it’s really rad for me to have my friends’ kids kind of look up to that character and dress up as her on Halloween. They can play with the boys and be rough. I always say, the Widow always wins, and it’s true.”

How did she prepare for the challenges of the physical parts of the role?

“I just came off doing a broadway run, which is probably the most physically challenging thing you can do. I felt that if anything was going to prepare me to have stamina, it was that. Everything seemed like a piece of cake. I think I was in pretty solid shape from that run. And then it’s just maintaining it. Boring, get up at 5, go to the gym, you know, all that stuff that’s horrible. Train like a dude and eat a bunch of lettuce."

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With the variety of roles she does, is it fun to keep coming back to this one?

“I never really have this opportunity. It’s an interesting challenge to keep coming back to this character. I have the good fortune of playing a character that’s sort of evolving with each installment you see her in. Going in to play the character, I have to understand who this character is and where she comes from. She has this rich backstory. The exciting thing is scraping away a little part of that each time to reveal a small part of the bigger picture of her. It’s a very complex character, which is wonderful for me, because over the period of time that I’ve played her, I’ve also grown, as you do in your career. I feel the character’s story is more enriched as we do these.”

Captain America: The Winter Soldier opens in theaters in the U.S. on April 4. You can see what questions Chris Evans was asked HERE. You can check out our interview with Anthony Mackie HERE.