Going Over The List: Scarlett Johansson
Scarlett Johansson spent three years quietly educating herself on the beauty industry before launching a single product — a pace that says a lot about how she approaches everything outside acting. Scarlett Johansson is an Academy Award-nominated actress, producer, and entrepreneur, best known for her three-decade film career spanning indie dramas like Lost in Translation and Marriage Story to her role as Black Widow across the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Beyond acting, she runs the production company These Pictures and co-founded the skincare brand The Outset in 2022, choosing to build it independently rather than license her name to an existing beauty conglomerate. In this post, we're going over Scarlett Johansson's List using two interviews to see how her life fits into the Home, Work, and Self framework.
Sources
Home
House
On real estate, Johansson owns properties in both New York and Los Angeles. On design and upkeep, she's kept those details largely private — home is one of the few parts of her life she doesn't route through interviews or her business ventures.
Partner
Johansson is married to Saturday Night Live writer and performer Colin Jost, whom she wed in October 2020 after meeting through the show years earlier. On quality time, she's said the couple's differing parenting styles show up even in small moments, like Jost insisting he's the better bedtime-story reader in the house. On shared responsibilities and conversation, she's credited Jost directly with helping her get to a place where she could better understand her own needs in a relationship — a shift she's said didn't come until this marriage, her third.
Family
On parents, Johansson was raised in Manhattan by her father, Karsten, a Danish-born architect, and her mother, Melanie Sloan, a producer; she's called her mother one of her biggest inspirations, particularly as a single parent during a difficult stretch of Johansson's own life. On siblings, she has a twin brother, Hunter, along with older half-siblings from her father's first marriage. On kids, she has two: daughter Rose, from her marriage to French journalist Romain Dauriac, and son Cosmo, with Colin Jost. She's said keeping her children's day-to-day lives out of the public eye matters to her more than almost anything else about her fame.
Work
Make
On time, Johansson spent roughly three years researching the beauty industry before launching The Outset, treating the process with the same preparation she'd bring to a film role. On space, that groundwork became a small, scrappy startup team of around seven people rather than a large in-house operation. On supplies, she turned down partnerships with major beauty houses like Estée Lauder and Shiseido in favor of independent financial backing, wanting real ownership over the brand rather than licensing her name to someone else's structure.
Show
In real life, Johansson has done in-person masterclasses and store appearances for The Outset, including at Nordstrom and Sephora locations. In print, she's been a fixture of entertainment journalism for three decades, with early roles alongside Robert Redford and a long run of awards-season coverage. Online, she's given extended sit-down interviews on shows like TODAY covering both her acting career and her business, though she's notably chosen to stay off social media herself.
Sell
On products, The Outset sells a simplified, allergen-free skincare line priced at $55 or under, sold through its own site as well as Sephora and Nordstrum. On services, These Pictures functions as her production vehicle for female-led film and television projects. On events, she's taken part in in-person retail activations and masterclasses to introduce The Outset directly to customers rather than relying purely on advertising.
Self
Wellbeing
On mind, Johansson has spoken candidly about the emotional toll of chronic acne and dry skin, describing the experience as genuinely debilitating rather than a minor cosmetic issue. On body, that struggle directly shaped The Outset's approach — a gentle, simplified routine built from her own trial and error. On soul, she's been open that motherhood shifted how she approaches her career overall, saying she no longer works the way she did in her twenties, now prioritizing personal growth and stability alongside ambition.
Admin
On time, she's acknowledged there's no clean work-life balance available to her, and that something always gives when juggling a film career, a business, and two kids. On money, The Outset secured financial backing from an outside investment firm while she retained real ownership, a structure she chose deliberately after her experience negotiating with major studios. On paperwork, her past legal fight with Disney over the streaming release of Black Widow — settled in 2021 — shaped how carefully she now structures her own business deals.
Social
On friends, her collaboration with The Outset co-founder and CEO Kate Foster has been central to the brand, with Foster describing Johansson's approach as a genuine startup mentality rather than a celebrity add-on. On communities, The Outset has partnered with organizations like Dress for Success and 1% for the Planet, building purpose into the brand from the start. On one-on-one relationships, she's described her mother as a lasting source of guidance, notably choosing her as a red carpet date during one of the more difficult stretches of her personal life.
Key Takeaways
Johansson treats new ventures with the same preparation as acting roles — years of quiet research before going public.
She's prioritized ownership and independence in her business deals, shaped in part by past experience with large studios.
Motherhood visibly changed her relationship to work, shifting her from purely career-driven to more deliberately balanced.
She draws a hard line around her children's privacy even while being otherwise open in interviews.
Personal struggle (her own skin issues) became the direct origin story for her business, not a marketing narrative bolted on after the fact.
Links & Resources
Official / Business
The Outset — https://theoutset.com/
The Outset (Instagram) — https://www.instagram.com/theoutset/
Notable interviews (additional to the two already cited)