Lindsay Lohan: I’d have Scarlett Johansson’s career if I hadn’t partied

Lindsay Lohan has said her partying past has ruined her chances in Hollywood.

Lindsay had three separate stints in rehab in 2007 and spent time in jail - albeit just 82 minutes - after two DUIs that summer. But 2008 saw her retreat from the party scene to concentrate on her relationship with Samantha Ronson.

She told Interview magazine recently that she thinks she could have a career on par with Scarlett Johansson if she hadn’t been so distracted by temptation over the past few years: “What hurts me the most is that I work just as hard as any other actress around my age, like Scarlett Johansson, but I just don’t get the opportunities that they get.

“And the worst part is, in terms of what people see of me, I have become this girl who just loves to be photographed, doesn’t know how to focus, doesn’t know how to work on set, just loves the attention, knows how to go out at night, knows how to party.

“And you know what? I was 20 years old. I never went to college. And I lived maybe six months out of my life like that, doing something wrong, and then I stopped.

“God forbid I should have ever learned my lesson. But at this point it’s so hard for people to even believe that there was a lesson to be learned at all, because they just think I’m wrong.

“People are so distracted by the mess that I created in my life. But that doesn’t mean it’s going to last forever.

“If I started wishing that I could have do-overs in life, then I would never have been able to really learn from my lessons. I’m not necessarily grateful for certain ’situations’ in my life per se, but I am most definitely thankful that I have been able to learn from them.”

She added that she thinks Hollywood is particularly judgemental when it comes to slip-ups: “I feel like the modeling industry is a little bit more accepting of women who make mistakes. They appreciate the idea of icons.

“I found that when I worked with Bert Stern on recreating the Marilyn Monroe shoot for New York magazine… When I was able to shoot with him and do that… Although I was also terrified to do it because, I mean, we’re two very different people, and I was only 21.

“But when I did that shoot, people didn’t frown upon it. People were like, ‘That’s a bold thing to do.’ People looked at that shoot more than they’ve looked at any film I’ve done in the past four or five years.”