Scarlett Johansson has insisted she does not see herself as a role model and is not comfortable with the tag.
The actress, 29, made the comments in her first interview since she stepped down as an Oxfam ambassador last month over her links with SodaStream, an Israeli company operating in the occupied West Bank.
Oxfam opposes all trade from Israeli settlements, saying they are illegal and deny Palestinian rights. Johansson said she had a “fundamental difference of opinion” with the charity and kept her role as brand ambassador at SodaStream.
In the interview, with Dazed magazine, she did not address the issue directly but said: “I don’t see myself as being a role model; I never wanted to step into those shoes. I don’t profess to know more or less than anybody else. If that’s a by-product of whatever image is projected on to me I don’t feel responsible as an artist to give anyone that message. It’s not my jam.
“How could I wake up every day and be a normal person if I was completely aware that my image was being manipulated on a global platform. How could I sleep?
“You have to have peace of mind. You’ve got to be able to protect those things. How else could you exist? You’d go crazy, anybody would go crazy.”
Johansson also described how the popularity of smartphones means she often encounters over-zealous fans trying to take her picture.
She said: “Now it’s crazy with iPhones and social media. There are moments where I’m like, ‘What do you want? You gonna sit there with your cameraphone and photograph me for this whole meal? Like, really? What, were you raised in a barn?’ There are still moments like that where I go, ‘Oh my God, people are unbelievable!’ ”
Read the full interview in the latest issue of Dazed magazine, (formerly Dazed & Confused), out on Thursday, dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/18989/1/dazed-spring-issue-trailer-2014
