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Scarlett Johansson has opened up about the reality of juggling Hollywood superstardom with family life, admitting that the idea of a perfect work-life balance simply doesn't exist.
The Black Widow star, who earned $43 million in 2025 to become the highest-paid actress of the year according to Forbes, told CBS Sunday Morning that success doesn't make the balancing act any easier.
Johansson has a lot on her plate right now. She is married to Saturday Night Live comedian and writer Colin Jost, whom she wed in October 2020.
The couple share a son, Cosmo, who was born in August 2021. She also has an 11-year-old daughter, Rose, with her former partner, French journalist Romain Dauriac.
On top of motherhood, Johansson has been taking on acting roles while also running her own skincare brand, The Outset. She was previously married to actor Ryan Reynolds, from 2008 to 2011.
Her approach to parenting has become more relaxed over time. She told CBS Sunday Morning that someone once gave her a piece of advice that stuck.
"Somebody once told me, 'If you're successful as a parent like 75% of the time, that's good. If you're doing 75% of it like right, then you're winning,' which is probably true."
"I think actually admitting that there is no work-life balance is the first step to kind of getting there in a way, because it's not possible," Johansson said.
"There's always something that is... there's a deficit in some area, and I think you have to be... I learned to be kinder to myself. You can't do all of these things all the time."
In a 2017 interview with Entertainment Tonight, she revealed that her family of six grew up on welfare in Manhattan.
"We were living on welfare, we were on food stamps. My parents were raising four kids in a low-income household in Manhattan. So, it was a lot," she said at the time.
Her path to fame wasn't straightforward either. Johansson has spoken candidly about how difficult it was to be a young woman in the public eye during the early 2000s, describing it as "a really harsh time."
"I think women were just pulled apart for how they looked in a way that was socially acceptable at the time, and it was tough," she told People. "There was a lot placed on how women looked and what was offered at that time for women my age as far as acting roles or opportunities, it was much slimmer than it is now."
Now one of the most recognisable faces in Hollywood thanks to her role as Black Widow in the Marvel universe, Johansson's perspective on what success actually looks like has clearly shifted. As she put it herself: "Is it good enough?"Apparently, most of the time, it is
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