This post contains spoilers for Avengers: Age Of Ultron
The massive superhero sequel Avengers: Age Of Ultron has divided critics far more than the first film, and one particularly contentious element is a romance between Bruce Banner aka The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson). While I don’t hate the idea of the pairing (and didn’t find the film to be particularly sexist, as some have claimed), I thought the execution was off. The movie is more interested in having characters discuss the Bruce/Natasha chemistry than showing it to us and the relationship relies almost entirely on Black Widow being emotionally forthcoming, which seems supremely out of character.
Those who are as frustrated as I am can take comfort in the fact that Johansson didn’t originally love the pairing either, as she explains in this short Fandango interview.
The interviewer asks Johansson and Ruffalo about the connection between their characters and Johansson has this to say:
I didn’t really understand or expect the connection that these two make with one another. [It] seemed very unlikely to me when I first read the script. I met with Joss and I was like, “Why are you putting these two together?”
At that point Ruffalo jumps in to joke that he was “of course” into the relationship from the beginning and Johansson quips back, “It’s kind of like the guy who was like, ‘Remember the first time we saw each other, we had something!’ And the girl is like, ‘I don’t even remember you.’”
The interview doesn’t return to the question of their romance, but I imagine the ever diplomatic Johansson would have gone on to explain she eventually came around to the idea of the Bruce/Natasha romance. But, hey, at least those who dislike the pairing can take some comfort in the fact that Johansson had the same initial reaction.
And as to where Johansson’s shipper sensibilities actually lie: She requested that her character wear an arrow necklace in honor of Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) during her appearance in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Read into that what you will.