Scarlett Johansson reveals the huge realisation she had turning 40 and reuniting with co-stars at ‘big’ party
Scarlett Johansson has revealed how she feels about hitting her milestone 40th birthday. The Black Widow star appeared on Tuesday’s edition of Today, where she spoke about one liberating realisation she had upon entering a new decade of her life.
Chatting to hosts Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie, the actress, who turned 40 this November, said: “It feels great.
“I feel like for forever you’re taught that it’s this big milestone. In some ways, it feels like a big milestone, in a lot of ways it’s like, ‘Meh’. You don’t care what other people think. It’s liberating.”
The Marriage Story star continued: “I mean forever, I’m sure like everybody, you’re so wrapped up in what other people think, your desirability, people pleasing and then you just realise that it doesn’t matter. You’re just on your own train.”
She later appeared on Today with Hoda & Jenna, where she expanded on her attitude towards the milestone birthday. “I think there’s a stigma about it,” she said. “When you’re a kid, 40 feels like forever away and then all of a sudden you’re there and you realise, I actually feel the same but different because I don’t care about what everybody else thinks.”
When quizzed about how she marked the occasion, Scarlett revealed that she held a big party with her friends and co-stars. “We had a big party and it was like ‘This Is Your Life’,” explained the mum-of-two. “It was surreal, I’m still processing it, actually. It was so many people that I hadn’t seen in a long time. My colleagues, co-stars, friends, and my high school friends were there. It was really wonderful to see everyone I loved together loving each other.”
Hosts Hoda and Jenna Bush Hager also took the opportunity to ask Scarlett about her attitudes towards young people using social media. The actress, who is a mum to her ten-year-old daughter Rose and three-year-old son Cosmo, explained: “I have a little guy who is three, so he’s not on a phone but my daughter is ten and so there’s a lot of that pressure coming around now, especially if she’s hanging out with older girls.”
She continued: “I think social media is hard for young people, it’s hard for me to process and I feel like technology is moving so much faster than our human egos can process.
“I’d rather she’d wait until she’s an adult to be able to participate,” added the actress.
Scarlett shares her daughter with her ex-husband, former journalist turned art curator Romain Dauriac, whom she divorced in 2017 after two years of marriage.
Since 2020, she has been married to Saturday Night Live co-head writer and Weekend Update co-host, Colin Jost. The pair welcomed their son Cosmo in August 2021.