Scarlett Johansson Opens Up About The Major in GHOST IN THE SHELL
I'm pretty stoked about the upcoming live-action adaptation of Ghost in the Shell. I think the movie looks stunning, and I like everything I've heard about how the story was developed as it's a reimagining of the franchise as a whole. It looks to me like director Rupert Sanders has done a great job, but we'll just have to wait and see when the full movie is released. We all know trailers can be deceiving.
In a recent interview with MTV, Scarlett Johansson opened up about the character she plays in the film, know as The Major, and offers some insight on playing a cyborg. The Major is a real person whose body was replaced with cybernetic parts, but the actual brain of the person it represents is still alive. The actress explained:
“She’s not living a human existence. She’s not living a fully robotic existence, either.”
She said that the film is a "coming-of-age story" for The Major. When we first meet the character, her job is the only thing that matters, and that job is taking down cybercriminals and hackers. Johansson explained:
“She never sleeps. She never really shuts off. She has vague memories of who she was before she became The Major and she has a connection to who she was through her relationship with [Juliette Binoche’s character] Ouelet and the people who work at Hanka — they remind her of what her story was — but the experiences that they’re living around her are totally unfamiliar to her.”
The actress also explained that the closer The Major gets to the film's villain, a cyberterrorist named Kuz played by Michael Pitt, she begins to have glitches and flashbacks. She can't really tell if these are actual memories she remembers or if they were implanted in her. She explained, “As she gets closer to the enemy, she strangely gets closer to herself.”
There is one character in the story who The Major has a very close relationship with, and that is Batou (Pilou Asbæk). Batou is part of the Section 9 task force and is always by the side of The Major. When talking about the relationship between these two characters Johansson said:
“I think Batou is the character that Major feels the closest human connection with. He’s someone who is very much himself. He’s been through the tragedy and loss of war. He’s lived a very human experience. She’s curious about that. Through his experiences, she feels like she’s able to absorb some of them and understand how the past informs the person that you are.”
She then added that the two have a playful relationship and said that it could be romantic "in some other universe." It'll be fun to see how they play with this relationship in the story for this new film. I just really want this adaptation to be great! I'll be so disappointed if it ends up telling a mediocre story. With all of the awesome source material they have to go on, I don't see how they can screw it up. But this is Hollywood, so we'll see what happens.
Ghost in the Shell hits theaters March 31, 2017.