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Scarlett Johansson Slams Ivanka Trump, Calls Her "Cowardly"

By Andrea Park

(CBS NEWS) – Scarlett Johansson slammed Ivanka Trump after seeing her interview with Gayle King on CBS This Morning.

Gayle King interviews Ivanka Trump
Gayle King interviews Ivanka Trump (credit: Caitlin Conant/CBS)

Johansson said she found Trump's argument that she doesn't need to publicly denounce her father in order to make an impact in the White House "baffling."

"I think you can't have it both ways," said Johansson at a Women in the World summit in New York on Thursday. "If you take a job as a public advocate then you advocate publicly, and yesterday she said something which I found particularly disappointing, which is she felt the greatest change she would have actually would be behind closed doors. Nobody would actually know she made this change. I thought to myself, 'Well, that's empowering.'"

Johansson was referring to when Trump told King: "I think most of the impact I have, over time most people will not actually know about."

The "Ghost in the Shell" star was not impressed. "How old-fashioned, that this idea behind a great idea is a great woman. What about being in front of that person or next to them or standing on your own? ... Screw that, it's so old-fashioned. It's so uninspired and actually really cowardly," she said as the audience erupted into cheers.

"I was so disappointed by that interview she gave, and of course it must be a complicated situation on many levels," said Johansson. "I can't imagine how complicated it must be to see your parent suddenly in the position that he's in and know deep down and -- not deep down -- that it's a position he never actually wanted."

The actress said that as a native New Yorker, she has run in some of the same social circles as Trump and run into her many times.

"She's a very well-spoken, smart, intelligent woman and I think engaging. It baffles me," she said.

Read more at CBSNews.com.

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