Scarlett Johansson says she faced ‘pressure’ to join social media to promote Jurassic World: ‘The film will do fine’
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Scarlett Johansson does not have an Instagram, and she is not changing that any time soon – even to promote Jurassic World.
The Her star revealed in a new interview that Universal Pictures, the studio producing her forthcoming film Jurassic World Rebirth, asked if she would join Instagram to help promote the film.
“I mean, even today, I got an email from Universal, and they’re like, ‘Hey, would you consider joining Instagram in tandem with the release of Jurassic World: Rebirth?’ I get a lot of pressure to join social media,” she told InStyle. “Is there a way I could do this and stay true to who I’m? It didn’t feel like I could.”
The former Marvel star added that she avoided social media because she simply didn’t enjoy it. “The work that I put out there is all based in truth. That is the key ingredient. So if I was a person who really enjoyed social media, then I could totally get on the bandwagon. But I’m not. And I think the film will do fine.”
She does, however, acknowledge the business benefits of social media and appears often on Instagram for her skincare company The Outset. “I’m totally there. It’s funny and fun and minimally invasive,” she said.
Jurassic World Rebirth, directed by Gareth Edwards and written by David Koepp, sees Johansson’s Zora Bennett join paleontologist Dr Henry Loomis, played by Jonathan Bailey, and team leader Duncan Kincaid, played by Mahershala Ali, to go to a forbidden island and extract DNA from three massive prehistoric creatures for a groundbreaking medical breakthrough.
The film also stars Rupert Friend, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Luna Blaise, David Iacono, and Ed Skrein.
In the same interview, Johansson said that the “vulgar” and “gross” jokes made about her in the 2024 Christmas episode of Saturday Night Live left her feeling “faint.”
In the holiday edition of the show, SNL star and Johansson’s husband Colin Jost and his co-anchor Michael Che did the annual “joke exchange” as part of the “Weekend Update” segment. The tradition sees the two men finding new ways to embarrass each other as they read jokes their comedy partner has written and which they have never seen before.
Jost was made to read several jokes that took aim at Johannson’s age, their baby, and their sex life.
The most brutal joke came at the end of the segment. “Costco has removed the roast beef sandwich from its menu, but I ain’t tripping,” Jost began. “I be eating roast beef every night since my wife had the kid.”
The cameras quickly switched to show Johannson, 40, watching on a screen backstage in complete shock. “Oh my god!” she said through laughs. “Holy s***.”
Finishing the gag, Jost said: “Naw, I’m just playing, baby. You know I don’t go downtown.”
Reflecting on the moment, the actor said: “It was so vulgar. I just can’t believe that they went there. I was like – it was so gross. It was really gross. And, like, old-school gross.”
While the Black Widow star said she had been warned that a “vagina joke” was going to be made, she did not realise it was going to be at her expense.
“I was like, ‘I mean, it’s a vagina joke, how bad could it be?’ And then as soon as the Costco photo came up, I was like, No! No, Michael!’” she said. “They were waiting for me to react. I felt insane,” Johannson added of the backstage cameras. “I was like, ‘I think I’m going to faint.’”
