Privacy, please. Seven months after giving birth to son Cosmo, Scarlett Johansson explained why she chose not to document her pregnancy.
“I’ve been so protective of both pregnancies, not wanting to feel scrutinized in the public eye,” the actress, 37, who is also the mother of daughter Rose, 7, told Vanity Fair on Tuesday, March 1. “I wanted to be able to have my own feelings about my changing body without other people also telling me how they saw me, whether it was positive or negative. I realized when I was pregnant with my son, it’s funny how much stuff people put on you when you’re pregnant — their hopes or their judgment or their desire, a lot of that is put on pregnant women.”
The New York native noted that while many people “immediately” congratulated the Black Widow star on her “wonderful” and “great” news, she had mixed feelings about expecting a child.
“While I was definitely excited to be pregnant in some ways, I also had a lot of not-great feelings about it, and that would be scrutinized by — I’m talking about, like, women that were close to me,” the Oscar nominee explained to the magazine. “You expect it from men, but from women, it’s like, ‘Come on, girl, you’ve been through it.’ One friend, when I told her that I was pregnant — she knew I was trying to get pregnant — she was just like, ‘Oh s–t. Great, but not great.’ And I was like, ‘You’re a true friend.’”
The Golden Globe nominee previously welcomed her eldest child in 2014 with then-husband, Romain Dauriac. Following their split, the Jojo Rabbit star moved on with Colin Jost, who she married in October 2020. News broke of Johansson and the 39-year-old Saturday Night Live writer’s son’s arrival in August 2021.
With two little ones at home, the Broadway star has “a lot on [her] plate,” she said on Tuesday.
“I’m used to having a lot of balls in the air, and I think I’m finally OK with letting other people help me keep the balls up,” the Lucy star said of working motherhood. “I haven’t always been that way. I’m getting to a place in my life where I’m okay with letting other people in, with asking for help — because I have projects that I want to work on as an actor, and they’re very consuming. It’s like, once I go into production, I don’t have that much space for other stuff. I’m working probably about 15, 16 hours a day. Other than having a little bit of time here and there to maybe answer emails or take a call, that work involves a lot of brain space.”
With a planned break from acting this summer, the Outset creator is planning to “focus” on her new skincare brand, as well as her family. “[They] need a lot of attention,” the Tony winner concluded.
