Jamie Lee Curtis Explains Support for Scarlett Johansson’s “Important” ‘Black Widow’ Lawsuit

Jamie Lee Curtis is explaining why she came out in support of Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow lawsuit in September in Time Magazine.

“I was asked to write about her in Time Magazine, I have always thought she was cool and I think what she’s doing and saying in this lawsuit is important,” she told Entertainment Tonight of Johansson’s breach of contract suit against Disney, whose settlement was announced Friday, in an interview published the same day. “And women who speak up are called ‘bitches’ and ‘strident’ and men who speak up are called ‘heroes.’ So I’m going to stand with the women.”

In September Curtis wrote an entry for Johansson for Time‘s “100 Most Influential People of 2021” list that said the actress crafted a “brilliant response to a real-life manipulation… when she filed a breach-of-contract lawsuit against the studio , alleging its decision to release the film simultaneously in theaters and on streaming cost her substantial losses in pay.” Curtis added later in the entry, “Whether as an assassin with a conscience, an actor with an emotional center or, having just given birth to her second child, a fierce mother, the message is clear: Don’t f-ck with this mama bear.”

On Friday The Hollywood Reporter reported that Johansson and Disney had settled the explosive suit, which posited that the company had reneged on its initial guarantee to provide a wide theatrical release to Black Widow when it released the film simultaneously on streaming and in theaters to grow its Disney+ service. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Not long after the suit was initially filed in late July, a Disney spokesperson said in one part of a statement that “The lawsuit is especially sad and distressing in its callous disregard for the horrific and prolonged global effects of the COVID-19 pandemic,” which provoked rebukes from CAA co-chairman Bryan Lourd and the performers’ union SAG-AFTRA. Other boldfaced names to speak on behalf of Johansson during the suit included Jason Blum and fellow Marvel star Elizabeth Olsen.

Elsewhere in the Entertainment Tonight interview, Curtis said, “I have always admired [Johansson] way prior to her playing my mother in the Hitchock movie,” she said, referring to Johansson’s portrayal of Curtis’ mother Janet Leigh in the 2012 film. “I’ve always just thought of her as — I don’t want to say fearless, because she’s been so vulnerable onscreen that she has shown great empathy and emotion. But she’s just, excuse my French, effing cool. She’s cool.”