Scarlett Johansson Slams Ivanka Trump’s ‘Complicit’ Comments

Scarlett Johansson has some sharp words for Ivanka Trump.

At the Women in the World Summit on Thursday, the actor spoke with Arianna Huffington about her thoughts on the first daughter and adviser to President Donald Trump. Trump dismissed the idea that she was “complicit” in an interview with CBS’ Gayle King this week on Wednesday, saying that she spoke up to her father, President Donald Trump, on issues which she disagreed with him on behind closed doors.” The first daughter also added, “I would say not to conflate lack of public denouncement with silence.”

Johansson took issue with these comments.

“She said something that I found particularly disappointing,” the actor said. “She said the biggest influence she could have or change that she could make would be behind closed doors — so no one would actually know that she made this change. I thought to myself, ‘Well, that’s empowering.’”

The actor, who gave a speech at the Women’s March on Washington in January, recently portrayed Trump on Saturday Night Live. The skit was an ad for a perfume called “Complicit,” which poked fun at Trump for not publicly speaking up against her father on his more controversial policies. “The fragrance for the woman who could stop all of this, but won’t,” the faux-commercial said.

Johansson said that by not speaking up, Trump embodied the old-fashioned adage “behind every successful man is a woman.” “How about being in front of that person, or next to them, or standing on your own?” Johansson said. “Powerful women get concerned with this idea that they’re going to be seen in this unforgiving light. Screw that. It’s so old fashioned, it’s so uninspired and actually really cowardly.”