Scarlett Johansson may be a major movie star with a multitude of big films to her name, but the 27-year-old actress does some of her most important work far, far away from Hollywood.
Johansson is politically and charitably active both within the United States and abroad; she campaigned for Barack Obama during his run for the presidency in 2008 and has served as an Oxfam Ambassador since 2004. In a discussion with Arianna Huffington for Interview Magazine, Johansson spoke about her passion for helping to make progressive change.
"There are people in America who are absolutely desperate right now, who have no means to support their families, who have no opportunities to better themselves or their education -- and they're not that different from the farmers and working-class people that I visited when I went to Kenya with Oxfam," she said.
Johansson took a trip this year to East Africa to raise awareness of drought and famine in the region, which she chronicled in a series of video blog posts for HuffPost.
"Whether they're in America or in Africa, people want to work," she continued. "They want to have purpose. They want to provide for themselves and their families. They don't want handouts. They don't want to be completely dependent on their governments -- even though there's usually no opportunity for that anyway. But they want to be self-sufficient and have a sustainable lifestyle."
Johansson also spoke about some of her upcoming films.
In late December, she will co-star with Matt Damon in Cameron Crowe's "We Bought a Zoo," a film about a single father who moves his family and buys a house with a zoo attached.
In the summer, Johansson will appear in the Marvel superhero epic, "The Avengers," playing Black Widow. At the time of the interview with Huffington, she was filming "Under The Skin," an experimental film with Jonathan Glazer.
For more from Johansson and Huffington on everything from politics to the advantages of flat shoes over high heels, click over to Interview Magazine.
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