Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Scarlett Johansson Opens Up On ‘Devastating’ Nude Photo Hacking

In her first-ever appearance on Howard Stern’s radio show this week, Scarlett Johansson addressed the 2011 hacking that targeted her and 50 other entertainer’s private nude photos.

“It was absolutely shocking and devastating,” said Johansson, who was in the midst of a divorce with actor Ryan Reynolds when the hacking took place. “It was such an invasion. I just felt like as a woman, I felt like it’s such a degrading and awful thing to have to go through that.”

Johansson noted that Christopher Chaney, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to the crime, also targeted two non-celebrity women he knew. She added that the attacks are especially painful as a person who is constantly under public scrutiny.

Indeed the hack, which targeted a veritable red carpet of female celebrities including Mila Kunis and Christina Aguilera, revealed the pain victims experience when private images are stolen and exploited. Johansson spoke at Chaney’s trial via video and called the illegal hacking, which enabled Chaney to enter private iCloud accounts through an Apple security loophole, “perverted and reprehensible.”

Stern — the man we have to thank for 17 years of interviews about Donald Trump’s sex preferences — kept the focus on Johansson’s body and sexuality for almost the entirety of their interview. The shock jock noted that the actress must have been a “hot ten-year-old,” asked for the names of men she considered sex symbols, and reflected that it would be “awesome” to just stare at each other for the rest of the hour.

Johansson politely avoided commenting on whether or not she would find such a turn of events “awesome”.

During the conversation Johansson noted the sexism she often experiences in interviews, particularly for her upcoming movie “Ghost in the Shell,” in which she dons a “beige rubber unitard” to play a cyborg.

“I finally got so tired of being asked how long it took me to put on my suit and what I wear under there and I said, ‘I’m sorry, do you happen to ask a man this question?’” Johansson told Stern.

Sigh. Scarlett Johansson is a Tony Award-winning actress, a fierce female advocate, and recent proprietor of the gourmet popcorn store ‘Yummy Pop’ in Paris. Wake us up when that’s back in the news.

Jenny Singer is an intern for The Schmooze. You can reach her at singer@forward.com and find her at her Twitter@Jeanvaljenny.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism. 

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at editorial@forward.com, subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.

Exit mobile version