As a co-recipient of the 1984 LO Kulturpris alongside acclaimed film director Billie August and six others, Danish art historian and documentary maker Ejner Johansson was no cultural slouch himself.
However, for all his endeavours, he is best remembered these days as the grandfather of American actress Scarlet Johansson, 31, whose Danish heritage is once again back in the news thanks to another starring role alongside this country’s man of the moment, Pilou Asbæk, 34.
Reunited in ‘Ghost in the Shell’
This time around, the billing is less lop-sided than it was when they appeared together in ‘Lucy’ in 2014, as since then ‘Game of Thrones’ has come calling, and thanks to roles in films such as Ben-Hur, Asbæk’s career is clearly in the ascendancy.
The pair have main roles in ‘Ghost in the Shell’, an adaptation of a manga comic book series by Masamune Shirow. Set in the future, terrorists and hackers wreak havoc with cyber and viral warfare.
A whitewashing or costume call?
Johansson’s casting has courted controversy amid calls of a whitewashing of a series set in Japan, even though her role is a cyborg – a ghost in a shell in fact – and has no fixed race.
As a commentor on IMDB observed, the filmmakers opted for someone they imagined the public wanted to see in “thermal optic tights”.
Three from ‘Game of Thrones’
‘Ghost in the Shell’ hits Danish cinemas on March 30, a day before it comes out in the US.
Along with Asbæk (Euron Greyjoy), two other ‘Games of Thrones’ cast members appear in the movie: Joseph Naufahu (Khal Moro) and Rila Fukushima (a red priestess).
