{"id":46347,"date":"2021-07-15T09:04:37","date_gmt":"2021-07-15T09:04:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amplify.nabshow.com\/?post_type=articles&p=46347"},"modified":"2024-09-08T00:41:37","modified_gmt":"2024-09-08T00:41:37","slug":"how-cate-shortland-made-the-unapologetic-ultra-feminist-black-widow","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/jwolfepr.com\/dev\/articles\/how-cate-shortland-made-the-unapologetic-ultra-feminist-black-widow\/","title":{"rendered":"How Cate Shortland Made the Fierce, Ultra-Feminist \u201cBlack Widow\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff\/Black Widow in Marvel\u2019s \u201cBlack Widow.\u201d Cr: Marvel Studios<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Set before Avengers: Infinity War<\/em> (2018) and immediately after the events of Captain America: Civil War<\/em> (2016), Marvel\u2019s Black Widow<\/em> sees Natasha Romanoff (Scarlet Johansson) on the run and forced to confront a conspiracy tied to her past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The action spy thriller \u2014 now in theaters and streaming on Disney+ via Premiere Access \u2014 is the first film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to be directed solely by a woman, with Cate Shortland (Berlin Syndrome<\/a><\/em>, Somersault<\/a><\/em>, Lore<\/a><\/em>) hired to helm the project. Johansson, who also served as executive producer, returns in a starring role as the titular comic book character alongside Florence Pugh (Midsommar<\/em>, Little Women<\/em>), Rachel Weisz (The Favourite<\/em>, Disobedience<\/em>), David Harbour (Stranger Things<\/em>, Extraction<\/em>) and O-T Fagbenle (The Handmaid\u2019s Tale<\/em>, The Five<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201chigh-octane espionage thriller\u201d is winning over critics and fans alike for Shortland\u2019s direction and strong supporting players in Pugh and Harbour,\u201d Umberto Gonzalez<\/a> notes in The Wrap<\/em>. With an 80% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes<\/a>, and an audience score of 92%, \u201cthe consensus about the standalone superhero film is that the film \u2018excels,\u2019 is \u2018purely pop feminism\u2019 and a \u2018deft spy caper,\u2019\u201d he writes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

READ MORE: \u2018Black Widow\u2019 Wins Over Critics as Both \u2018Pop Feminism\u2019 and \u2018High-Octane Espionage Thriller\u2019 (The Wrap)<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Scarlett Johansson, director Cate Shortland, Florence Pugh and David Harbour on the set of Marvel\u2019s \u201cBlack Widow.\u201d Cr: Marvel Studios<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Shortland and the rest of the creative team were given a nearly blank slate for creating Natasha Romanoff\u2019s backstory, which is hinted at several times within the MCU but never fully fleshed out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI worked with a Russian historian in London to build a history of where she would\u2019ve been born, what her mother would\u2019ve been like, why her mother would\u2019ve given her up and what her childhood would\u2019ve been like before she went into the Red Room,\u201d Shortland recounts in the film\u2019s production notes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThen we had to create a whole narrative that fit within the narrative of our film \u2014 how she would\u2019ve been trained to be an American girl, to speak English and understand popular culture. I always try to build characters from their skeleton to create real people. Even though this is about a Super Hero, I went through the same process. Black Widow is a femme fatale, but what is she underneath that?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

According to screenwriter Eric Pearson (Thor: Ragnarok<\/em>), the ongoing mystery of Natasha Romanoff was compelling for both audiences and filmmakers. \u201cI think she\u2019s the one Avenger who\u2019s shared the least about herself ever since we met her,\u201d he says. \u201cShe\u2019s not who she says she is in Iron Man 2<\/em>. She chooses to withhold her past and who she is personally from the audience and the other characters. In Black Widow<\/em>, we get to rip open her past and see what led to her hesitation to open up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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