Scarlett Johansson Always Wanted to Star in a ‘Jurassic' Movie. Her Dream Has Finally Come True

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1984–present
Scarlett Johansson is finally fulfilling a lifelong dream. The Oscar-nominated actor stars in Jurassic World Rebirth—a gig she's been after for over a decade. Picking up after the events of 2022's Jurassic World Dominion, the new installment arrived to theaters July 2 and sees Johansson portray a covert operations expert tasked with obtaining dinosaur DNA for a potential medical breakthrough.
A lifelong Jurassic fan, the 40-year-old told The Hollywood Reporter it feels 'unbelievable' to be involved in the franchise after all this time. 'I've been trying to get into a Jurassic movie for, I don't know, 15 years or something. I was so stoked that it all came together,' she said.
Being such a superfan, however, did pose a bit of a challenge for her on set. 'I had to compartmentalize my nervous excitement for the job in front of me while also focusing on making it work,' Johansson added. 'I would have these really geeked out, fangirl moments and then be, like, 'OK, put that away for a second.''
Actor Scarlett Johansson is known for her Oscar-nominated performances in Marriage Story and JoJo Rabbit, as well as her recurring role as Marvel's Black Widow. Johansson began acting as a child, gaining critical acclaim for her role in The Horse Whisperer at age 13. She achieved widespread recognition with her impressive performances in the 2003 romantic movies Lost in Translation and Girl with a Pearl Earring before entering the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the mega-hit The Avengers in 2012. In more recent years, Johansson has starred in films like Fly Me to the Moon, The Phoenician Scheme, and Jurassic World: Rebirth. She is married to Saturday Night Live comedian Colin Jost.
FULL NAME: Scarlett Ingrid JohanssonBORN: November 22, 1984BIRTHPLACE: New York, New YorkSPOUSES: Ryan Reynolds (2008–2011), Romain Dauriac (2014–2017), and Colin Jost (2020–present)CHILDREN: Rose and CosmoASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Sagittarius
Scarlett Ingrid Johansson was born on November 22, 1984, in the Manhattan borough of New York City. Her father, Karsten Johansson, is a Danish architect, and her mother, Melanie Sloan, is a producer and actor. She has a fraternal twin brother named Hunter, an older brother, Adrian, and an older sister, Vanessa. Scarlett also has an older half-brother, Christian, through her father's first marriage and later gained a younger sibling when her mother adopted her sister Fenan.
Scarlett's interest in acting surfaced at an early age. At age 7, she began auditioning for commercials and started taking acting classes at The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. When she was 8 years old, she appeared in an off-Broadway production of Sophistry with Ethan Hawke.
Scarlett continued to seek out roles and decided to study at Manhattan's Professional Children's School, a private educational institution known for such famous acting alumni as Carrie Fisher, Rita Moreno, and Sarah Michelle Gellar. At PCS, the young Scarlett pursued her passion for musical theatre and even took tap dance lessons. 'I was a big song-and-dance type of kid—you know, one of those kids with jazz hands,' she told Interview Magazine in September 2013. 'I liked to improvise and do weird vocal exercises. I was a major ham.' Soon, she would be performing professionally.
In 1994, Johansson landed her first paid acting role in a sketch on Late Night with Conan O'Brien before making her movie debut in the Rob Reiner comedy North. Recalling her first time on the set of North, she told New York Magazine in February 2004, 'For some reason, I just knew what to do, instinctively. It was like, I don't know… fate.' Her first leading part came two years later with Manny & Lo, an independent dramatic comedy. Johansson played the younger sister of a pregnant teenager, both of whom were in foster care. Her twin brother and sister, Vanessa, also appeared in the film.
At 13 years old, Johansson first earned critical acclaim in the 1998 neo-Western The Horse Whisperer. Her portrayal of Grace MacLean, a young amputee, won over many fans, including the film's star and director Robert Redford. 'That film changed things for me in a lot of ways,' Johansson later recalled to Esquire in October 2013. 'I went through this realization that acting, at its heart, is the ability to manipulate your own emotions.' Following the success of her breakout performance, the young actor received even more attention with her supporting role in 2001's Ghost World, despite its tepid performance at the box office.
After graduating high school in 2002, Johansson found herself as one of Hollywood's top up-and-coming actresses. She landed two starring roles in 2003, both of which garnered her critical accolades. In Lost in Translation, she played a woman visiting Tokyo who forms an unlikely relationship with a much older man, played by Bill Murray. Johansson also gave an impressive performance as a servant girl who is painted by famed artist Johannes Vermeer (Colin Firth) in Girl with a Pearl Earring. Both roles earned her Golden Globe nominations for Best Actress.
Johansson took on a variety of projects after these early successes. In 2004, she appeared in A Love Song for Bobby Long opposite John Travolta, as a young woman trying to reclaim her deceased mother's house. Her performance secured her another Golden Globe nod for Best Actress. The following year, Johansson starred in the drama Match Point, in which she played a woman having an affair with a married tennis instructor. For the role, she scored her first Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Johansson later worked with director Brian De Palma on the 2006 crime thriller The Black Dahlia.
After appearing in several dramas, Johansson tried her hand at comedy again in The Nanny Diaries (2007), playing a dysfunctional, wealthy couple's nanny. The following year, she appeared in Woody Allen's romantic comedy Vicky Cristina Barcelona, opposite Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz.
Turning to big-budget fare, Johansson, who stands at 5 feet, 3 inches, took on the role of the super agent Black Widow in Iron Man 2 (2010) opposite Robert Downey Jr. The action flick became one of the summer's big blockbusters and set the stage for her contributions to numerous films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Johansson next appeared as Black Widow in the 2012 box-office smash The Avengers. The film also featured Downey as Iron Man, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, and Chris Evans as Captain America.
The actor continued to hold down her high-profile role in a string of Marvel blockbusters, including Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Avengers: The Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019). Her involvement in the franchise proved highly lucrative, fueling her rise to the top spot in Forbes' ranking of the world's highest-paid actresses in 2018. Johansson flew solo for the first time in 2021's Black Widow, which received mostly positive reviews.
Johansson remained busy outside of her commitments to Marvel. In 2011, she co-starred alongside Matt Damon in Cameron Crowe's dramatic comedy We Bought a Zoo. The following year, she took on the character of real-life film star Janet Leigh in Hitchcock, which explores the life of director Alfred Hitchcock during the making of the horror classic Psycho.
In 2013, Johansson lent her distinctive voice to the futuristic flick Her as an intelligent operating system that draws the affection of Joaquin Phoenix's lonely character. The next year, she took a supporting role in Jon Favreau's dramatic comedy Chef and starred as the title character in Luc Besson's sci-fi thriller Lucy later that year. Johansson rejoined Favreau to voice the character of Kaa in The Jungle Book in 2016 and voiced Ash in the animated musical Sing.
In 2017, Johansson starred in the American adaptation of Ghost in the Shell. The production was criticized for its whitewashed cast, as Johansson's character in the original anime was Japanese. That same year, she returned to comedy as part of the ensemble cast for Rough Night. In 2018, she voiced one of the canines in Wes Anderson's stop-motion feature Isle of Dogs.
Later that year, Johansson found herself in the middle of another casting controversy when she was tapped to play transgender massage parlor owner Dante 'Tex' Gill in Rub & Tug. After initially dismissing the concerns through a spokesperson, Johansson acknowledged the 'insensitive' nature of her response and announced she was withdrawing from the film.
Next up for the actor was a co-starring role in the well-received 2019 drama Marriage Story, alongside Adam Driver, in which she played an actor in the middle of a divorce. The Netflix hit was filmed just a year after her divorce from Romain Dauriac was finalized. 'By the time we had made the film, I was in a more settled place. But obviously I had my own fresh perspective on the story,' Johansson told The Hollywood Reporter at the time. For her performance, she earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actress, as well as a Golden Globe nomination in the same category.
Taking on another controversial project, Johansson also appeared in Taika Waititi's Jojo Rabbit (2019), as the mother of a 10-year-old boy in Nazi Germany who considers a goofy Adolf Hitler to be his imaginary best friend. The role scored her an Oscar nod for Best Supporting Actress, making her the 12th performer to receive double nominations in the same year. Two years later, she reprised her role as Ash in Sing 2.
Johansson returned to the big screen in the 2023 Wes Anderson film Asteroid City, in which she played Midge Campbell, a lonely 1950s movie star. She reportedly took a huge pay cut for the role, earning just over $4,000 per week. The following year, Johansson starred alongside Channing Tatum in the romantic comedy Fly Me to the Moon, set against the backdrop of the 1969 moon landing. The film, which premiered in theaters and on Apple TV+, received mostly positive reviews. She later voiced Elita-1 in the animated series Transformers One.
Johansson appeared in the 2025 spy comedy The Phoenician Scheme—her third Wes Anderson project—about a wealthy arms dealer who starts a new business venture after surviving an assassination attempt. She also has tried her hand at directing. Her directorial debut, Eleanor the Great, earned a five-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival in May.
The actor is currently starring in Jurassic World Rebirth, which arrived in theaters in July. Taking place five years after 2022's Jurassic World Dominion, Johansson plays a covert operations expert tasked with obtaining dinosaur DNA for a potential medical breakthrough. A longtime fan of the franchise, she told The Hollywood Reporter: 'I've been trying to get into a Jurassic movie for, I don't know, 15 years or something. I was so stoked that it all came together.' Johansson is also set to appear in the upcoming comedy drama My Mother's Wedding in August.
After appearing in several films, Johansson took her acting skills to the stage. In 2010, she made her Broadway debut in a revival of Arthur Miller's drama A View from the Bridge opposite Liev Schreiber. Johansson earned positive reviews for her convincing performance as Catherine, a teenage girl who is raised by her aunt and uncle. For her performance, Johansson won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play. She later returned to Broadway in the 2013 adaptation of the Tennessee Williams drama Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, in which she played the role of Maggie.
In addition to her successful acting career, Johansson made a brief foray into music when she signed with Atco Records in October 2006. She released her debut studio album, Anywhere I Lay My Head, through Atco Records in May 2008. The record, which featured cover versions of songs by Tom Waits, received mixed reviews and did not perform well commercially. Branching out into new territory, she joined forces with Pete Yorn for an album of duets. The pair released their collaborative effort Break Up in May 2009. Johansson wrote several tracks for the recording. 'I've been singing for my whole life. When I was a kid I wanted to be on Broadway,' she told New York Magazine at the time.
Johansson later ventured into pop music, forming the girl group the Singles with Este Haim, Holly Miranda, Kendra Morris, and Julia Haltigan. The group released their first single, 'Candy,' in February 2015. 'The idea was to write super-pop dance music written and performed by girls,' she told Rolling Stone. Just days after the song was released, however, the group received a cease-and-desist from a Los Angeles-based rock band of the same name. Following their legal troubles, Johansson's the Singles disbanded and did not release another song. Three years later, she teamed up with Yorn again for her EP Apart, which came out in June 2018.
Johansson is married to comedian Colin Jost, the longest-running 'Weekend Update' anchor on Saturday Night Live. The pair had known each other for years, having first met on SNL in 2006, as friends. Then, in May 2017, they were spotted kissing at an SNL afterparty. Johansson and Jost made their first public appearance as a couple at the American Museum of Natural History Gala in New York in November 2017. After two years of dating, they got engaged in May 2019.
The couple exchanged vows in a private wedding ceremony amid the COVID-19 pandemic in October 2020. They announced their nuptials via the Meals on Wheels Instagram account, requesting donations for the charity instead of wedding gifts. The couple welcomed their first child, a son named Cosmo, in August 2021.
Her marriage to Jost is Johansson's third. She and fellow actor Ryan Reynolds were married for a little over two years. Their September 2008 wedding was a small ceremony in British Columbia, Canada. The couple purchased a home together in Los Angeles but filed for divorce two years later, in December 2010. Their split was finalized in July 2011.
Johansson was then romantically linked to actor Sean Penn for a time. The pair traveled to Mexico together and attended actor Reese Witherspoon's wedding in March 2011, though they eventually parted ways. Later that year, Johansson found herself at the center of a scandal when nude photos from her cell phone were leaked. The FBI launched an investigation and arrested hacker Christopher Chaney, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
In November 2012, Johansson went public with her relationship with French journalist Romain Dauriac, who eventually became her second husband. A representative for the actor revealed in September 2013 that the pair were engaged. The following year, Johansson and Dauriac announced the birth of their daughter, Rose, in September 2014. The couple wed in Philipsburg, Montana, in October 2014, but the public didn't get wind of the announcement until December. After more than two years of marriage, Johansson divorced Dauriac in September 2017.
As of May 2025, Johansson has an estimated net worth of $165 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. She is one of the highest-paid female actors in Hollywood, earning an average of $10 million to $20 million per film. In addition to acting, she has her own skincare line, The Outset, which she launched in March 2022.
I'm so tired of hearing casting directors ask if I have a sore throat. The people who have told me that my voice is distinctive, it's unusual... those people have always been close to my heart.
I was a big song-and-dance type of kid—you know, one of those kids with jazz hands.
But when I was younger, a lot of the roles I was offered, or I went for, had their ambitions or character arcs revolving around their own desirability, or the male gaze, or a male-centered story. That is less frequent, though—something has shifted.
I've been trying to get into a Jurassic movie for, I don't know, 15 years or something. I was so stoked that it all came together.
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