Scarlett Johansson's mother told her to "use her sexuality" to get ahead. She regrets listening.

When you hear the name Scarlett Johansson, what do you think of?

While the actress has a spate of successful movies and TV shows under her belt, as well as a plethora of awards with her name engraved on them, if you asked Scarlett that question herself, she'd probably say: her looks. 

Because that's what she feels she is best known for. What people associate with her first. 

And that may be because of the advice she was given as a young actor. Advice that she thought would help her break into the industry she was so desperate to be a part of.  

Watch the shocking moment Scarlett Johansson was groped live on a red carpet. Post continues below. 

That advice came from her own mother – someone who we're sure was just trying to help. But who shared something that would impact her daughter's trajectory enormously. 

"We had our mothers who were like, 'Use whatever you can to get the thing you need. Use your feminine wiles. Use your sexuality,'" Scarlett stated in a conversation with Dax Shepard on his podcast Armchair Expert.

"And then there's our generation, I think, that's done that and also [said], 'This doesn't feel right, there's gotta be some other way,'" she said of her experience in the industry, noting the discomfort that came with her sexuality being such a 'hireable' trait at the time. 

Scarlett explained that from the beginning of her career – which kicked off when she was just a teenager – she felt like she was being hypersexualised and forced into very specific, sexy roles. 

"I kind of became objectified and pigeonholed in this way where I felt like I wasn't getting offers for work for things that I wanted to do. I remember thinking to myself, 'I think people think I'm 40 years old.' It somehow stopped being something that was desirable and something that I was fighting against."

Scarlett knew that this opinion of her was one that wouldn't give her a durable career in Hollywood, given that the industry is one that puts a lot of value on youth.

"The runway is not long on that. So it was scary at that time. I attributed a lot of that to the fact that people thought I was much, much older than I was," Scarlett explained to Dax. 

And that perception matches up with the movies she was cast in at the time. 

The now 37-year-old actress was only a teenager when she landed her first 'adult' roles in the drama Girl with a Pearl Earring and the romantic comedy-drama Lost in Translation – both where she was cast to play characters five years older than her actual age.

Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray in Lost In Translation. Image: Focus Features.

While Scarlett is no doubt disappointed in the hand she was dealt during her start in Hollywood, she is grateful that the tide seems to be turning for up and coming actors. 

"Now, I see younger actors that are in their 20s. It feels like they're allowed to be all these different things. It's another time, too. We're not even allowed to really pigeonhole other actors anymore, thankfully, right? People are much more dynamic."

With that being said, Scarlett explained that there is still a way to go for women not to feel objectified in the business.

"We live in a patriarchy, and I feel like there's a fundamental reality of the woman's condition that will always, even if those 600 men are not actively aggressive necessarily as much as they would have been a minute ago, it's still fundamentally there," Scarlett said. 

"It's so baked into our culture and society. It's hard for me to imagine that ever being not an element."

Feature Image: Getty/Mamamia.