Scarlett Johansson has already shown she has what it takes to stand the test of time in Hollywood. Other tests, though — like the SATs — have been more difficult for the Don Jon actress to ace. Speaking with Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky for the October issue of Interview magazine, the 28-year-old blonde bombshell revealed her self-described "pretty low" SAT score from high school.
"I think the way it worked when I took them was that they were out of 1,600, so maybe you'd get a 1,240 if you were a smarty-pants," she told the Harvard-educated Aronofsky. "I got a 1,080, which was pretty low. But that was probably because I didn't answer half the math questions."
Later, when Aronofsky (Rachel Weisz's ex-husband) confessed that his SAT score was 1,360, she replied, "You suck. Damn it…Now I feel like a big dummy with 1,080."
To be fair, Johansson was busy trying to launch her career at the time. The newly engaged star (her fiance is Frenchman Romain Dauriac) recalls being "a big song-and-dance type of kid — you know, one of those kids with jazz hands." (Her first role was in Rob Reiner's North, which she says she filmed when she was 8; she later gained widespread attention in 1998's The Horse Whisperer.)
She continued: "I liked to improvise and do weird vocal exercises. I was a major ham — if you can believe it, Darren…And then puberty hit and I crawled into a dark, cold shell and never left. But I took acting classes. My brother did Little League, and I took acting and singing and tap and all that s–t. Then I got into auditioning."
Success didn't happen overnight, though. "There was someone in my older brother's class who was doing some commercials and theater, so my mom took me to that kid's agent because I loved musicals," she explained. "They didn't want me, though. I was devastated. I thought it was the end of my career."
Part of the problem was her now-trademark low purr of a voice. "I was always terrible at commercials because my voice was so deep," she said. "At the age of 9, I sounded like a whiskey-drinking, chain-smoking fool. Wasn't going to sell Jell-O with that voice, you know?"
