Scarlett Ingrid Johansson (born November 22, 1984) is an American actress and singer. She was the world’s highest-paid actress in 2018 and 2019, and has featured multiple times on the Forbes Celebrity 100 list. Her films have grossed over $14.3 billion worldwide, making Johansson the ninth-highest-grossing box office star of all time. She is the recipient of various accolades, including a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play and a BAFTA Award for Best Actress, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards and five Golden Globe Awards.
Born and raised in Manhattan, New York City, Johansson aspired to be an actress from an early age and first appeared on stage in an Off-Broadway play as a child actor. She made her film debut in the fantasy comedy North (1994), and gained early recognition for her roles in Manny & Lo (1996), The Horse Whisperer (1998), and Ghost World (2001). Johansson shifted to adult roles in 2003 with her performances in Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation, which won her a BAFTA Award for Best Actress, and Girl with a Pearl Earring. She was nominated for Golden Globe Awards for these films, and for playing a troubled teenager in the drama A Love Song for Bobby Long (2004), and a seductress in Woody Allen’s psychological thriller Match Point (2005). Other works during this period include Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige (2006) and Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), and the albums Anywhere I Lay My Head (2008) and Break Up (2009), both of which charted on the Billboard 200.
In 2010, Johansson debuted on Broadway in a revival of A View from the Bridge, which won her a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress, and began portraying Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a role for which she received critical acclaim and global recognition, beginning with Iron Man 2 (2010) and most recently with Black Widow (2021). Johansson went on to star in the science fiction films Her (2013), Under the Skin (2013), Lucy (2014), and Ghost in the Shell (2017). She received critical acclaim and two simultaneous Academy Award nominations for playing an actress going through a divorce in Noah Baumbach’s drama Marriage Story, and a single mother in Nazi Germany in Taika Waititi’s satire Jojo Rabbit (both 2019).
As a public figure, Johansson is a prominent brand endorser and supports various charities. Labeled a Hollywood sex symbol, Johansson has been cited as one of the world’s most attractive woman by several media outlets. Divorced from actor Ryan Reynolds and businessman Romain Dauriac, Johansson has been married to comedian Colin Jost since 2020. She has two children, one with Dauriac and another with Jost.
“I’ve had to fight for everything that I have.”—Scarlett Johansson
“If you feel glamorous, you definitely look glamorous.”—Scarlett Johansson
“It’s nice to have a crush on someone. It feels like you’re alive.”—Scarlett Johansson
“I still eat a burger at a counter with ketchup dripping down my face.”—Scarlett Johansson
“You think that your life is going to be one way, and then, for various reasons or whatever, it doesn’t work out.”—Scarlett Johansson
“I’m happiest when I have something to focus my energy on.”—Scarlett Johansson
“I value my privacy and my personal life – and I certainly don’t exploit my personal life.”—Scarlett Johansson
“One of the best things for a woman to hear is that she is sexy.”—Scarlett Johansson
“I’ve always been very competitive, and a part of that is pushing your boundaries – taking a risk and being able to live with the loss that comes with taking a risk.”—Scarlett Johansson
“There’s no such thing as an aura of mystery anymore. It doesn’t exist. That’s a thing of the past.”—Scarlett Johansson
“I believe in finding a soulmate.”—Scarlett Johansson
“I don’t go to McDonald’s anymore.”—Scarlett Johansson
“I don’t think it’s natural to be a monogamous person.”—Scarlett Johansson
“I’m not anxious to starve myself. For me, it’s not at all sexy to be ultra-thin.”—Scarlett Johansson
“I definitely believe in plastic surgery. I don’t want to be an old hag. There’s no fun in that.”—Scarlett Johansson
“I do work that I feel I have something to contribute to.”—Scarlett Johansson
“I think marriage initially involves a lot of people who have nothing to do with your relationship, because it’s a legally binding contract, and that has a weight to it.”—Scarlett Johansson
“I’ve always had the same principle for choosing roles, which is to try and make movies that I would pay to see. As I get older, that’s meant different things.”—Scarlett Johansson
“Powerful women often get concerned with this idea that they’re going to be seen in this unforgiving light. Screw that. It’s so old-fashioned… It’s so uninspired and actually really cowardly.”—Scarlett Johansson
“I went through this realization that acting, at its heart, is the ability to manipulate your own emotions.”—Scarlett Johansson
“I have always expected a lot from myself.”—Scarlett Johansson
“I get up early, go to the coffee shop to play cards for a while.”—Scarlett Johansson
“I’ve always been very determined, ever since I was a little girl, to make my way.”—Scarlett Johansson
“I just want to work on things that are really hard, and when I’m not working on things that are really hard, I want to hang out with people I like to be with, and that’s it.”—Scarlett Johansson
“As a devoted mother and private person, and with complete awareness that my daughter will one day be old enough to read the news about herself, I would only like to say that I will never, ever be commenting on the dissolution of my marriage.”—Scarlett Johansson
“I like this job. I like doing it. It’s good to be challenged like that.”—Scarlett Johansson
“I think most of the impact I have over time most people will not actually know about.”—Scarlett Johansson
“LA’s a very hard place to be unless you have people there that love you. It can be very, very lonely, and it can eat you up if you don’t take care of yourself. In LA, nobody wants to talk to each other, everybody’s giving each other catty looks.”—Scarlett Johansson
“I think the idea of marriage is very romantic; it’s a beautiful idea, and the practice of it can be a very beautiful thing.”—Scarlett Johansson
“When I decide I want to have children with somebody, I think it would be nice to be married to that person.”—Scarlett Johansson
“I’ve always been interested in local politics.”—Scarlett Johansson
“Everyone has been discriminated against or harassed – sexism is real.”—Scarlett Johansson
“It’s important for people to figure out their own lives before involving someone else – to gauge where you are and work on your own issues.”—Scarlett Johansson
“I’d rather go to the White House Correspondents’ dinner than any awards show.”—Scarlett Johansson
“I mean, it’s nice to get a dinner reservation ahead of other people, but when it comes down to it, the most important thing to me is the actual work.”—Scarlett Johansson
“Whenever I’m taking time off, all I’m thinking about is working.”—Scarlett Johansson
“I never struggled with trying to figure out what it was I wanted to do or what made the sparks go for me.”—Scarlett Johansson
“Monogamy can be hard work for some people. I don’t think it applies to everybody, and I don’t think a lot of people can do it.”—Scarlett Johansson
“I work a lot, so I don’t really live anywhere for very long periods of time.”—Scarlett Johansson
“I would never knowingly go into a film that I wouldn’t pay to see, or something that didn’t challenge me.”—Scarlett Johansson
“I’m just a big believer in ‘you must love yourself before you can love anybody else,’ and I think for me that breeds the most inspired relationships.”—Scarlett Johansson
“Being married is different than not being married, and anybody who tells you that it’s the same is lying.”—Scarlett Johansson
“I look for projects with filmmakers who want to make things that give the audience a fresh experience.”—Scarlett Johansson
“As an actor, anything that you have to help get you into character is helpful.”—Scarlett Johansson
“It’s important for people to figure out their own lives before involving someone else – to gauge where you are and work on your own issues.”—Scarlett Johansson
