Actress Scarlett Johansson has launched a scathing attack on Ivanka Trump as ‘cowardly’ and ‘disappointing – weeks after playing her on Saturday Night Live.
The 32-year-old used an appearance in New York to lace into the president’s daughter and adviser, accusing her of ‘standing behind a man’.
Johansson played Ivanka in a skit on SNL last month, advertising a perfume called ‘Complicit’.
On Thursday she appeared at the Women in the World conference in New York, which is run by Tina Brown, the former magazine editor who is a close friend of Hillary Clinton.
The actress was there to take part in a discussion described as ‘breaking up the boys club, an intimate conversation with Scarlett Johansson about her work, her activism and motherhood’.
Hitting Ivanka: Scarlett Johansson used an interview with Arianna Huffington (right) to attack Ivanka Trump as ‘cowardly’ for not standing up to her father. She did not spell out which issues she wanted Ivanka to speak out against her father on
Attack: Scarlett Johansson accusing the president’s daughter of ‘standing behind a man’
‘Complicit’: Scarlett Johansson fronted a fake ad for a perfume as she played Ivanka Trump for Saturday Night Live. Ivanka embraced the term this week in a CBS interview
Hitting Ivanka: Scarlett Johansson used an interview with Arianna Huffington (right) to attack Ivanka Trump as ‘cowardly’ for not standing up to her father. She did not spell out which issues she wanted Ivanka to speak out against her father on
Attack: Scarlett Johansson accusing the president’s daughter of ‘standing behind a man’
‘Complicit’: Scarlett Johansson fronted a fake ad for a perfume as she played Ivanka Trump for Saturday Night Live. Ivanka embraced the term this week in a CBS interview
But Johansson said: ‘You can’t have it both ways. If you take a job as a public advocate, then you have to advocate publicly.’
She added: ‘It’s such an old-fashioned concept to stand behind a man – what about standing in front of him and beside him?’
And she called Ivanka’s position ‘uninspired’ and ‘cowardly’, and said she was ‘disappointed’ in her.
Arriving: At the same time as Scarlett Johansson was attacking her, Ivanka arrived at West Palm Beach on Air Force One with her three children, holding baby Theodore in her arms
She also suggested that it must be hard for Ivanka, whom she knew from growing up in New York, to find herself in the position she was in.
‘She has the power to make a big impact just by being vocal.
‘She’s very well spoken, smart and intelligent woman and engaging. It baffles me.’
Johansson, who recently split from her husband Romain Dauriac, was not asked about their custody battle over two-year-old daughter Rose, despite the panel being about ‘motherhood’.
She was however asked about running for office, and said ‘I would never rule anything out.’