An Analysis in Scarlett Johansson
During the last episode of the season of “Saturday Night Live,” Michael Che and Colin Jost exchanged jokes on “Weekend Update,” where they wrote uncomfortable jokes for each other to read.
Following Mr. Jost’s 2020 marriage to Scarlett Johansson, Mr. Che has taken great pleasure in harassing his spouse by sending him obscene jokes to read about his movie star spouse.
“ChatGPT has released a new voice-assistant feature inspired by Scarlett Johansson’s A.I. character in ‘Her.’ Which I have never bothered to watch because, without that body, what’s the point of listening?” Mr. Jost said in May, laughing and shaking his head sheepishly as he read it.
What is the body’s reaction to that joke?
With a cheeky giggle, Ms. Johansson remarked, “I think I blacked out during it.” “I’m not angry at all. I definitely fear that I’ll have to go into hiding at this point and that I’ll start receiving hate mail. But somehow, I can have a beer with Che right away thereafter.
The 39-year-old actress had her bare feet tucked behind her as she leaned back on a couch at the Whitby Hotel in Midtown Manhattan. She wore a sensual black Rodarte dress and black Balmain mules that fell to the ground, looking radiant in daytime sequins. In homage to her father’s Danish heritage, she has a tattoo of Thor’s hammer on her wrist that includes a tiny “I ❤️ NY” engraved in it. She’s currently getting a different tattoo off on her arm that depicts a dawn.
Ms. Johansson’s undiva manners, kindness, calm demeanor, and, as her husband puts it, her “fundamentally positive outlook” are all mentioned by many who know her.
Mr. Jost observed, “She’s very good at picturing what she wants from every phase of life and career.”
Ms. Johansson is incredibly present during a period when it appears like everyone is just half there, with the other half engrossed in their nefarious little devices. She avoids social media because she doesn’t want outsiders to know about her life, which adds to her mystery in a world when everyone is so open. Her big green eyes follow me around for almost two hours, posing almost as many questions as she answers.
She has hosted “S.N.L.” six times and excelled as Ivanka Trump (introducing her perfume, “Complicit”) and Senator Katie Britt of Alabama (responding in an odd and eerily flirtatious way to President Biden’s State of the Union address). She is also a comic star at “SNL.”
“I’m smitten with her,” admitted the normally reserved Lorne Michaels. Mr. Michaels, who has watched 49 seasons of “S.N.L.” and has witnessed countless neuroses and addictions, adores Ms. Johansson’s “brilliant” and “no fuss” qualities.
“Go to the water,” he murmured. She simply possesses it. It’s merely the glimmer in her eyes. You can sort of see that she is alive. Ten minutes later, you’re talking about something else as she concentrates and completes the task. She has a pleasant personality and is extremely forthright about her beliefs.
Promoting “Fly Me to the Moon,” a summertime comedy costarring Channing Tatum and Woody Harrelson and directed by Greg Berlanti, is Ms. Johansson’s debut picture under her producing business.
Mr. Jost appears as a bespectacled senator in a sequence where Ms. Johansson plays a scam artist turned advertising whiz trying to persuade lawmakers to approve extra funding for NASA. The comic described his character as “some combination of Mitch McConnell and Foghorn Leghorn.” (Ms. Johansson made a joke to Jimmy Fallon about how their prenup required Mr. Jost to make cameo appearances in her movies.)
I asked Mr. Jost if he was envious of his wife for canoodling with Mr. Tatum while he was on set.
He remarked, “I think I’d be in trouble if I was at this point.” We were present when Scarlett took home the American Cinematheque Award, and one of the highlights of the evening was a lengthy kissing montage. “All right, there you go,” I said. I’m happy that it was all compiled into one bundle.
He shot back, sardonically, “She was just filming ‘Jurassic Park,’ so she’s thinking of everything in terms of delicate ecosystems,” when I told him she referred to their relationship as “a delicate ecosystem.”
With a voice reminiscent of the 1940s, when all the leading ladies had those wonderful, unique voices, Ms. Johansson is a true twinklie in a world bereft of cinema stars.
“She reminds me of Carole Lombard—that extremely uncommon blend of glitz, beauty, and intelligence,” observed Tom Rothman, chairman of Sony Pictures’ film division. “That’s what you call a real movie star, capitalized M and S.” According to him, Sony is excited to release the film, which was funded by Apple Original Films, on large screens around the nation in the hopes that a crazy romantic conspiracy comedy would bring viewers back to the cinema this summer.
Mr. Berlanti described how men and women engineers and members of the film crew would pause their work to watch Ms. Johansson walk confidently onto the set wearing a colorful vintage dress and high heels when they were filming the NASA scenes at Cape Canaveral.
Mr. Berlanti remarked, “They’re literally building a rocket behind us.” “Guys, look out! There’s a rocket heading in the opposite direction.” Being the center of attention while working at NASA, when there are enormous buildings all around you, is really difficult.
“She belongs to the actresses who have first names like Meryl, Julia, and Scarlett,” he went on. “She has spent her entire adult life as a star. She has achieved success in every genre, including voice-over work and art-house and blockbuster movies. Furthermore, she hasn’t crumbled beneath the pressure of society or the star system.
“Lost in Translation”: A mismatch
The cast gave Ms. Johansson positive feedback regarding her skill as a producer.
“We all got to go over to Scarlett’s house and just chill, and she threw a Super Bowl party that was really sweet and really fun for the entire cast,” Mr. Tatum stated. “On sets, she’s really, really good at bringing people together.”
In the film, Anna Garcia, who plays Ms. Johansson’s assistant, noted that an actor who had a little role did not know his lines on the first day of filming.
“How is this guy not aware of his lines?” Thinking, Ms. Garcia recalled. “Scarlett tried to calm his nerves and remained incredibly kind.” In order to relieve her memory-challenged colleague of some of the workload, Ms. Johansson ultimately assigned one of the lines to another actress.
As he came to know the actress, Woody Harrelson, who plays a cunning Nixon operator who wants Ms. Johansson’s advertising executive to assist in filming a spoof moon landing in case the real one goes awry, expressed amazement.
He remarked, “She’s a global superstar, but I never saw a hint of ego—she’s just such a down to earth person.” Despite her New York birth, she has a strong Midwestern charm. I had no idea she would be humorous, yet she makes me laugh so hard.
He claimed that the actress took the time to discuss the value of continuing education with his youngest daughter, Makani, even though she decided not to attend college after being turned down by New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. She also made an appearance on the “S.N.L.” set the previous year to present Mr. Harrelson with his “Five Timers Club” blazer in honor of his fifth hosting stint.
When Ms. Johansson was a young actress, she costarred in “The Horse Whisperer” with Robert Redford. When she was seventeen, she filmed Sofia Coppola’s “Lost in Translation,” which catapulted her to greater fame. She portrayed a restless young wife whose husband, a photographer, is away on assignment in Tokyo. She hangs out with another insomniac, Bill Murray’s character, a movie star going through marital problems and filming an advertisement for whiskey in Japan. “Set the time to Suntory.” The combination was endearing.
Making that movie was difficult, according to Ms. Johansson. It was a long distance off. There were 26 days. We were shooting both during the day and at night. We may not have fully understood what it was. Sofia took action. She saw what we were receiving, but not everything appeared to be on the page. It was a 76-page script.
Was there nobody with an Ambien in that hotel in Tokyo?
She stated that it was before to Ambien’s huge popularity. She took one on a flight to Berlin later, when it was the preferred soporific, and found herself standing in a daze on the luggage carousel, forgetting how she had gotten her bags to the hotel. “I had the impression that I was high on meth or something.”
I experienced such an odd, fast-paced, out-of-body experience.
Following a nearly three-year union with Ryan Reynolds, Ms. Johansson resided in Paris and was wed to French journalist and advertising executive Romain Dauriac. Their daughter Rose is nine years old. Cosmo, the actress’s 2-year-old son, and Mr. Jost, 42, are parents.
In reality, they first crossed paths when Ms. Johansson was 21 and Mr. Jost was 23, during his rookie year on “S.N.L.” His sketch, which was a parody of the MTV reality show “16 and Pregnant,” included her.
He didn’t see Ms. Johansson as a potential love interest because he was too focused on his own budding profession.
“I wasn’t like, ‘I should probably ask one of the hosts out,'” he remarked of his first year as a writer. “I asked myself if I would have a job this year.”
When she returned to host, they would occasionally cross paths, but their relationships were always centered around other people. Then, in 2017, when she arrived to host, they were both free.
“I extended an invitation to her following our Tuesday night host dinner,” he remarked. “I simply said, ‘Would you like to go get a drink?'” We then continued to drink until perhaps four in the morning. It was excellent. It was beneficial for my future marriage but not for my writing.
“It’s beyond my comprehension.”
Ms. Johansson is a brand and charity spokesperson; she co-founded the Outset skin care line and has starred in ads for Calvin Klein, Dolce & Gabbana, L’Oréal, Louis Vuitton, and Prada. “I had acne all my life,” she remarked. “It truly originated from a necessity.
She has advocated for women’s rights and supported Democratic candidates during their campaigns. She has visited President Biden in the Oval Office and has known him for years. She enjoys his team and his values. Polls suggest that Donald J. Trump would be returning to the White House, and she described her experience as “a weird nightmare.”
“Trump?” she said. “It’s unfathomable to me. That’s when I look at Biden and think, given the fact that the election is in a few months’ time, what are we doing? I have friends that are like, ‘Oh, maybe we could consider this person, or that person.’ I’m like: ‘What are you talking about? Who?’ It just seems to me like totally the wrong time to not support Biden. It seems crazy. It’s really depressing.”
Is his age not causing her any concern?
She shot back, “No!” “Are you? Concerning the Democratic Party, I have concerns.
I inquired about Ms. Johansson’s thoughts regarding the recent terrible outbursts of antisemitism in the nation.
She said simply, “I’m not surprised by antisemitism.” “That shouldn’t come as a surprise.” (She played the mother of a Hitler youth in the 2019 film “Jojo Rabbit,” in which the child discovers that she is a member of the resistance and is concealing a Jewish girl in the home.) She received an Oscar nomination for the role.
She has Eastern European and Jewish ancestry on her mother’s side in addition to Danish ancestry on her father’s. “We were all called ‘Danish knishes’ by our parents,” she recalled.
She was raised in a humble yet artistic household and began going to auditions at a young age. She even had to cry in the train to learn how to handle rejection. Jack Antonoff was her lover at Greenwich Village Professional Children’s School, where she attended P.S. 41 before continuing on to high school. (He composed the melancholic song “Better Love,” which goes, “Hey, Scarlett, you’re not the same/Scars are in her name/And she scars me with blame.”)
She lived in New York with her architect father until her mother relocated to Los Angeles when she was thirteen.
She remarked, “It was hard.” Even so, my parents were no longer together at that time. They had endured so much unhappiness. Being able to relax at home was lovely.
A few years back, she admitted to Bruce Bozzi on his Hollywood podcast, “Table for Two,” that she disliked being “groomed” to be “what you call a bombshell-type actor.” She claimed that she felt stuck because she was always the target of desire in movies.
I inquired as to whether she still thought that.
She remarked sarcastically, “I think I’ve outgrown that by just a few years.” Regarding the desire for sex objects in Hollywood, she remarked, “I don’t know if that changes, really, the bombshell thing.” It is so ingrained in society.
No “Joan of Arc” here. However, even so
Though she does occasionally voice her opinions on subjects that are important to her, nobody anticipated that she would take the lead on two of the most important problems affecting her sector.
Mr. Michaels laughed and remarked, “She’s not Joan of Arc.” “But she doesn’t give up.”
Sean Penn, with whom I was just chatting, talked admiringly of Ms. Johansson, the erstwhile inamorata, saying, “She’s been on the cutting edge of stuff twice.” She is quite talented. To me, she is among the best people.
She has an amazing two-for-two record when it comes to bending behemoths.
Her most recent fight was with OpenAI’s Sam Altman. A buddy texted Mr. Jost in May after Mr. Altman unveiled his company’s new voice assistant, saying, “Have you heard the new ChatGPT voice, it sounds exactly like your wife?”
Ms. Johansson, who co-stars with Joaquin Phoenix in the film “Her,” had been asked by Mr. Altman last year to record the voice of Sky, one of the voices for OpenAI’s new model, but she had declined, saying that she was not interested. Not in my opinion.
She told me, “I felt like I didn’t want to be at the forefront of that.” “It just seemed to go against my basic principles,” “I don’t like to kiss and tell,” she continued. He brought this to me, and I told no one but my spouse about it.
“I also felt for my children; it would be strange,” she said. I strive to keep them in mind. The “nebulous” character of technology and its direction troubled her. (In the far-off 2025 film “Her,” Samantha declares, “I’m becoming much more than they programmed,” experiences an orgasm, and falls in love.)
Even though no one, not even Mr. Altman, is certain where this technology is headed, OpenAI sought a voice that would project confidence and allure in relation to its new technology.
OpenAI was founded by Mr. Altman and Elon Musk as a nonprofit watchdog organization to protect human interests in the artificial intelligence race. However, after the two Silicon Valley titans split up, Mr. Altman converted a portion of OpenAI into a profitable for-profit business in 2019. (Mr. Musk dismissed his lawsuit against OpenAI four months after it was filed, accusing the company of forsaking its initial goals in favor of big business.)
It was odd for Ms. Johansson to hear Sky and “that voice introduced out into the wild.” All of a sudden, I started receiving tons of messages.
On X, Mr. Altman only posted the word “her” on the day of the launch. The “Her” actress released a statement in which she expressed her amazement, rage, and disbelief, stating that the voice sounded “eerily similar” to her own.
She told me that the reason the talk was so unsettling was because she had purposefully avoided participating in it. “I wondered how I got involved in this.” She said, “It was insane.” I was furious.
She has stated that she does not want to share every aspect of her life with a group of strangers, which is why she does not even have a social media profile.
Mr. Jost stated, “I believe that part of what keeps her a little healthier is probably the fact that it was never an appealing thing for her.”
Before asking Ms. Johansson to be “a sixth voice” for ChatGPT, Mr. Altman said in a statement that he had already hired another actress to portray Sky—a woman who just so happened to have a similar sound. He maintained it was all just a misunderstanding and not a cloning or copying of her voice. However, he “paused” Sky’s voice when Ms. Johansson voiced her concerns.
I asked her if she thought Mr. Altman would be a good enemy for Marvel.
“I suppose he would — perhaps with a robotic arm,” she remarked, grinning brightly.
Because there isn’t any comprehensive regulation to oversee the world of digital replicas and deepfakes, she claimed that no one is really safe from the unknowns of this new reality.
She described it as “like this dark wormhole you can never climb your way out of.” Something tends to reappear elsewhere if you attempt to eradicate it in one place. There are other nations with distinct laws and regulations. Your entire life may be devastated if your ex-partner is posting deepfake pornographic material in retaliation. (In 2011, she suffered a painful lesson about the pervasiveness of privacy in the digital age when a hacker gained access to her phone and the nude photos she had taken for her first husband, Mr. Reynolds; the hacker was ultimately apprehended by the FBI and found guilty.)
Although Ms. Johansson acknowledges that artificial intelligence (AI) will benefit certain fields, such as medicine, she also believes that technology is moving more quickly than our frail human egos can comprehend, and this is evident in many spheres of society, particularly among youth. Technology is emerging at a thousand-foot wave speed.
Her buddy, British actor Rupert buddy, with whom she is filming the upcoming “Jurassic World” film, expressed his admiration for her triumph.
“If the little guy is humanity, I think it’s a blow for the little guy,” he remarked. “The rest of us have no chance if she rolls over or gets squashed.”
She also faced up against Disney in 2021, suing the company on grounds of contract breach after it had simultaneously released the movie “Black Widow” on Disney+ Premier Access and in theaters.
The traditional Hollywood model is being upended by a technology earthquake. From the right to control their own images, voices, and thoughts to the right to a fair portion of streaming money, the creative class is fighting the courts to gain protection as artificial intelligence and streaming upend the status quo.
In the words of James Mason to Cary Grant in “North by Northwest,” Bob Chapek, the then-CEO of Disney but eventually fired, rather overreached himself. Mr. Chapek failed to realize that he was coming across as King Kong stomping after Fay Wray when he accused Ms. Johansson of being “callous” about the pandemic’s effects when she objected to the dual release because it would reduce the theatrical box office profits, which largely determined her salary.
After all, her lengthy reign as the sly, redheaded Black Widow in the Marvel franchise had helped make Disney billions of dollars. They broke her contract and attacked her character, as her agent Bryan Lourd stated in his statement, purposefully shifting “the revenue stream and profits to the Disney+ side of the company, leaving artistic and financial partners out of their new equation.”
Because the complaint was filed right before she gave birth, during the height of the Covid pandemic, she referred to it as “a blur.” After three months, Disney gave up and reached a settlement with the star.
“I have no resentment,” she declared. “I believe that at the time, it was just a case of bad leadership and poor judgment. The whole thing simply seemed really unprofessional to me. To be honest, I was really upset, especially since I had been holding out hope until my team finally told me to take action.
Kindness and Silly Jokes
“Eleanor the Great,” a film about two women who become friends—a 90-year-old Floridian tourist and a 19-year-old student in New York—is currently in postproduction. This is Ms. Johansson’s first directing endeavor.
The actress was in Thailand, posing as a dinosaur escapee for the newest “Jurassic World” movie, when we met. She had just returned from a 25-hour journey.
“In acting, there’s an old proverb,” Mr. Friend remarked. “People go, ‘BS, BS, BS, my bit, BS, BS, my bit, BS, BS,’ when they look at the script or their lines for the day.”
He went on, “Scarlett is the total opposite of that.” “In real life, she genuinely asks you a question and is curious about your response. You would be shocked at how many people become engrossed in their own little universe, which includes their hotel room, agent, headshot, new business venture, and Oscar. Scarlett truly establishes the tone for a film about partners who are courteous to one another and share a good number of crude jokes.
She will also be seen with Mr. Friend in the upcoming Wes Anderson movie “The Phoenician Scheme.”
It’s difficult to find someone who isn’t enamored with Ms. Johansson. This also applies to Mr. Anderson. He claimed to have known her since she was a teenager and said he could see her developing into a “great, great actress, like Gena Rowlands or Anna Magnani” when he directed her in the previous year’s “Asteroid City.”
He continued, “She’s also the most endearing person to work with—great fun and really funny.” “She really is amazing.”
According to Mr. Jost, people are often shocked by “how much normal stuff she does.”
She visits the grocery store. She just keeps moving and does a great job at donning a hat. She manages to remain somewhat anonymous while yet engaging in all of these routine activities and finding enjoyment in them.
He continued, “I think that’s in part why I fell in love with her—she’s a fantastic mother.” Since she was two years old, I have known Rose, my stepdaughter. It’s peculiar. You get to see someone as a mother in real life.
Mr. Jost did, however, take issue with Ms. Johansson’s suggestion that he attempt a manicure and the occasion when she offered him a treatment to advertise her skin-care line. “Never again,” he declared.
He unintentionally made a pun when he stated, “It was nails on a chalkboard.” “I object to people prodding and poking me.”
Ms. Johansson claimed to have experienced competitive love partnerships where one partner felt as though they were making more sacrifices than the other. However, she claimed that their relationship is not competitive and that her dark, sardonic brand of humor does not frighten Mr. Jost.
Thanks to her nine Marvel films, she is among the highest-grossing actresses of all time, so he is not even intimidated by her stature.
She remarked slyly, “It’s hard for me to imagine that wouldn’t be an incredibly attractive quality.”
She describes the humor of Mr. Jost as “joyful, not meanspirited at all.”
We enjoy laughing, she remarked. That is really significant to me. Being hilarious is a tremendously appealing trait in someone. Once upon a time, I had a boyfriend who became upset with me for not laughing at his jokes. “You never laugh at my jokes,” he said. “I’m laughing inside,” I think to myself.
Mr. Jost, for his part, wants it made clear that they don’t just loiter aimlessly all day.
He remarked, “It’s not like we laugh all the time.” In addition, we’re solving a number of puzzles. We enjoy spending time with folks who share our sense of humor.
Ms. Johansson expressed her enthusiasm for strolling “miles and miles” in her white Hokas while exploring New York and spending time in Central Park.
And no one is bothering her?
“No,” she replied, grinning. “This is New York.”
Verify or Reject
You have an Avengers text chain, Maureen Dowd.
Scarlett Johansson: It is accurate, I agree. Ideally, though, no one will ever read it. Inside, everything happens. Really, though. It might be brought up if someone has received negative reviews. We Avengers are akin to a family. Over the course of more than ten years, we have experienced an amazing journey. It changed everyone of our lives. It’s amazing that most people will answer to your texts within a few minutes if you text the chain.
You want a figurehead of yourself on the Staten Island Ferry that Colin and Pete Davidson co-own, a la Lauren Sanchez.
Only when Michael Che and I are face to face.
You’d rather attend the Oscars than the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner.
That is accurate, really.
You’re a karaoke pro.
I’m all set to go at any moment. “New York State of Mind” by Billy Joel and Tony Bennett is always my favorite song.
When you were younger, a skit on Conan O’Brien’s show was your first major part.
Indeed, I arrived to conduct a spelling bee. I was extremely kind, yet I played a spelling champion who was a lousy speller. It wasn’t my spelling skills that won me over the judges; it was only my cuteness that did.
NASA is superior to SpaceX in your opinion.
That is accurate, really.
You bathe frequently.
I no longer take as many showers as I used to as a youngster. Yes, I take several showers during the day.
You were approached by Tom Cruise to join Scientology.
(laughing) Scientology has never actively sought to attract me.
On your 2008 album, you collaborated with David Bowie to sing Tom Waits’s song “Anywhere I Lay My Head.”
I think that’s the best thing I’ve ever said, but he did it separately: David Bowie provided backup vocals for me.
You remain devoted to Disney World in spite of everything.
I still think it’s amazing.
You starred in an Alfred Hitchcock biopic despite having a severe phobia of birds.
It is true, even if “Psycho” was the subject of that film. All I can think of is the wings, the way they flap, the pointed beaks and claws, and the jerky movements. Nothing about it appeals to me.
On your 2008 album, you collaborated with David Bowie to sing Tom Waits’s song “Anywhere I Lay My Head.”
I think that’s the best thing I’ve ever said, but he did it separately: David Bowie provided backup vocals for me.
You remain devoted to Disney World in spite of everything.
I still think it’s amazing.
You starred in an Alfred Hitchcock biopic despite having a severe phobia of birds.
It is true, even if “Psycho” was the subject of that film. All I can think of is the wings, the way they flap, the pointed beaks and claws, and the jerky movements. Nothing about it appeals to me.
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