Scarlett Johansson’s in Love! (but not with this guy)

How cute! Nightgown, La Cera Sleepwear. On Yorn: pajamas, Brooks Brothers.

By now we all know that it’s not easy to grow up in front of the camera—Hollywood is riddled with examples of how it can all go terribly, horribly, shaved-headedly wrong. But Scarlett Johansson is an exception: a child-star success story, a happy-ending tale of how hard work and a level head can prevail in even the craziest of towns. True, she has an exceptionally appealing set of traits— a husky voice, porcelain skin and a logic-defying body that’s both curvy and petite—but she has never been one to assume that these were enough to land her a job. She appeared in her first film at age 10 and was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for her role in Manny & Lo at age 12. That performance caught the attention of Robert Redford, who cast her in The Horse Whisperer (1998), and Sofia Coppola, who gave her a career-making role in Lost in Translation (2003). She has starred in at least one film every year since, including three from director Woody Allen. That’s not luck, people—that’s drive and determination.

This year Johansson continued her workaholic tendencies—she was part of an all-star cast in He’s Just Not That Into You, completed filming Iron Man 2 and is now promoting an album of duets with Pete Yorn titled Break Up. She also found time to wage a cheeky counter-offensive against the tabloids for suggesting she’d crash-dieted to strip off weight for Iron Man 2. “If I were to lose 14 pounds,” Johansson wrote on The Huffington Post website, “I’d have to part with both arms. And a foot.”

Playing media offensive has also helped Johansson keep her private life—and marriage to fellow superstar Ryan Reynolds—private: “You don’t go to work and talk about your marriage,” she responds when pushed. But that’s the only time the actress bristles (understandably); otherwise she’s witty, self-deprecating and sharp. Over lots of iced teas in a Los Angeles heat wave, Johansson discusses relationships, the Hollywood weight police and her new career as a singer.

GLAMOUR: Your album’s fantastic! How was it to work with Pete Yorn?

SCARLETT JOHANSSON: I’ve known him for a while. I’ve worked with both of his brothers, who are in the entertainment industry. One day Pete texted me out of the blue saying, “Hey, do you want to record an album?” I was like, Whoa, that’s a weird message. But I said, “Sure—why not?”

GLAMOUR: How’d he know you sing?

__ SCARLETT JOHANSSON:__ He didn’t!

GLAMOUR: He just thought you would be good?

SCARLETT JOHANSSON: He said he had some weird fever dream—and had this idea that we should do a duets album…. When I started singing along to the songs he was playing me, he said, “I’m really happy that you can sing!” [Laughs.]

GLAMOUR: So would you like to do musical theater?

SCARLETT JOHANSSON: I would love to work on Broadway, but I don’t know that it would manifest itself in musical theater…. I have terrible stage fright that I’d have to get over.

GLAMOUR: Really?

SCARLETT JOHANSSON: Crippling. Not as a kid. It came on when I was a teenager, and I think it somehow sticks with you.

GLAMOUR: You’ve really grown up in front of the camera, but you didn’t seem to have an awkward phase.

SCARLETT JOHANSSON: I was pretty awkward in The Horse Whisperer. I watch it now, and it’s painful. Did I go through a phase where I had cystic acne and greasy hair? No. But I certainly had an awkward phase.

GLAMOUR: I don’t necessarily mean the cystic acne. I just mean the “I don’t know how to be in my own skin” phase.

SCARLETT JOHANSSON: I never had that. I think that’s because I was an actor, and you have to be comfortable in your body.

GLAMOUR: I read your piece [about body image and Hollywood] on The Huffington Post recently. Tell me what inspired you to write it.

SCARLETT JOHANSSON: I was training for Iron Man 2, which was a lot of work, full-on. I wanted to do a lot of my stunts and to be believable as this superspy, so I started getting fit and eating well and feeling really good. But then there was this rumor mill cranking out stories that I had lost 14 pounds—I could never lose 14 pounds—and was on some miracle diet. I just thought it was ridiculous. I was working my ass off, but I was doing it on my own terms and certainly through no miracle diet. I don’t want to get caught up in that s—t…. I hate seeing these ridiculous articles where [tabloids] guess someone’s weight. But they approach it as fact! I’m sick of it as a woman—not just as a person on the other side of it. As a reader. I got fed up.

GLAMOUR: How do you keep sane about the whole weight thing?

SCARLETT JOHANSSON: I want to look good, obviously. I don’t want to look at the screen and go, Oh, my skin looks terrible, or, I look exhausted. That’s why I take care of myself when I work…. But I don’t feel the obligation to be a specific weight. I don’t feel like I have to fit into a body that’s not my body. I have the body I have and I try to maintain it.

GLAMOUR: A lot of actors aren’t able to [have that attitude].

SCARLETT JOHANSSON: If you open up a magazine and there’s a photograph of you with a giant red circle around your thigh, like, look at this cellulite, any person—I don’t care what you do—would be mortified. It’s no wonder people get crazy about it.

GLAMOUR: So how do you avoid getting crazy about it?

SCARLETT JOHANSSON: My parents never put a lot of pressure on us to be any kind of way…. I have [my] funny moments where I look at myself and think, Oh, this is a disaster. But you have to give yourself a reality check and go, All right, if I feel this way, I’m going to do something about it that’s healthy. I can’t look at somebody who is 6 feet tall and 120 pounds and say, I’m going to get that body. That’s just never going to happen. You have to work with what you’ve got.

__GLAMOUR:__In a lot of your films over the years, you had a sexpot thing going on. When did that start?

SCARLETT JOHANSSON: It was a weird phenomenon, but at the time, being 17, 18, 19, I kind of embraced it. You’re realizing your own sexuality at that time, and you’re kind of coming into your own womanhood, so it felt natural…. But I don’t think about being sexy, being seductive. What you don’t want to see is somebody trying to be sexy. That’s the most unsexy thing.

GLAMOUR: You’ve done a lot for someone who is 25. What do you think has made you so successful at a young age?

SCARLETT JOHANSSON: I’m an actor for hire. It’s important not to forget that you’re disposable….When you have that mentality, you fight for the jobs you want.

GLAMOUR: Do you feel like you might have burnout at 30?

SCARLETT JOHANSSON: You never know. I might open my own bakery! [Laughs.] The thing is, I don’t know how to do anything else, other than things that relate to film.

GLAMOUR: Well, speaking of things you’ve done at a young age—what made you decide to get married young?

SCARLETT JOHANSSON: I never really thought about getting married—it just kind of happened. It seemed natural, the right thing to do. It was kind of a celebration of the time.

GLAMOUR: Does it feel different?

SCARLETT JOHANSSON: I think the only difference is that I’m kind of making my own little family now, which is funny. It’s like a little bit of a tribe. You hope that a relationship makes you better, that you learn things about yourself. You’ve had this one view, and now you have another view. I feel more confident to explore things within myself that I hadn’t thought about in the past…. My parents divorced when I was 13, so it was not the ideal representation of marriage.

GLAMOUR: Is it weird seeing your husband on Letterman talking about you?

SCARLETT JOHANSSON: Yeah, it is weird, because I would never ask somebody about their marriage if I didn’t know them. I don’t profess to know anything about marriage that anybody else doesn’t know, or how to make it right. I don’t want to read about somebody who’s giving me relationship advice. So I try to keep some things for myself, to have a private life. Because that’s kind of all you have, really, isn’t it? When it comes down to what separates you from the next person. You don’t go to work and talk about your marriage. Why should I?

GLAMOUR: Right. There are a lot of actresses who can’t make a move without the paparazzi following them. How have you avoided that?

SCARLETT JOHANSSON: By not talking about my personal life! I think that makes a big difference. I go to work, I make movies, I publicize them. I hope people enjoy them. I’m not a relationship expert. I’m not a diet and health expert. I don’t know anything except for movies, other than some Trivial Pursuit kind of information.

GLAMOUR: Do you like the fashion component of your job?

SCARLETT JOHANSSON: It’s a nice added plus. [Johansson appears in the new Dolce & Gabbana ads for the fragrance Rose The One.] One day my door buzzes, and it’s Domenico [Dolce] and Stefano [Gabbana]. They come in, and Domenico gets on his hands and knees and starts measuring me, and he’s going, “Shoulder to shoulder! Arm to elbow!” Next thing I know, I get a package. They whipped up all of these fabulous things for me. What girl wouldn’t want that?

GLAMOUR: Do you enjoy the red carpet? sj: I have a tumultuous relationship with it because I love to get ready for the red carpet, but being on it is very uncomfortable. It’s so freakish and weird. I get flop sweats, dry mouth, heart palpitations, allover panic! I did this movie with John Travolta, and every time I looked over at John on the red carpet, he looked so fabulous. So I said to him, “What do you do?” And he said, “I go to Hawaii in my mind.”

GLAMOUR: So do you do that now?

SCARLETT JOHANSSON: I try to, but all I can see is a dark tunnel with a little white light at the end of it. And the little white light is finally getting into the theater and watching a movie.

GLAMOUR: So what’s next for you?

SCARLETT JOHANSSON: I’m going to get some deep tissue massages. [Laughs.] No, I don’t know, but I know myself, and if they ask me to work in two weeks, I’ll be like, OK. I don’t have hobbies. If I go on vacation for too long I get anxious.

GLAMOUR: Really, no hobbies?

SCARLETT JOHANSSON: There are things I like to do, but I don’t have kids. So it’s not, I want to spend time with the kids. And it’s not like I’m whittling bowls…. I like to be productive.

GLAMOUR: Well, that you are!

Amy Larocca is a freelance writer living in New York City.