Scarlett Johansson on becoming a skin care mogul

On screen, she’s always been flawless. But away from the flattering lights and makeup, Scarlett Johansson was always bothered by the way she looked. “I felt like I had to wake up and, like, cover up all this acne before I got to work,” she said. “It’s a lot of effort. It weighs on you.”

She said she had an “a-ha moment” about 12 years ago: “Yeah, in the middle of my career. But I had been dealing with my own skin struggles since I was 12, you know? And on the set of ‘The Horse Whisperer,’ I remember the makeup artist being like, ‘Oh, you’ve got, you know, like Mount Vesuvius on your forehead.’ And I was like, AAAAH!!  As, like, a pre-teen adolescent, you’re just so self-conscious, and then you have the makeup artist pointing it out! And you’re working on set and, like, people are trying to kind of light around it. It’s just awful.”

And so, after coping with acne and breakouts for years, and basically trying everything, she started her own skin care line. It’s called The Outset, products designed for people with sensitive skin like hers.

To hear her tell it, there’s an Outset product for everyone and every skin condition, like the dark spots of melasma. “I started getting melasma about 10 years ago,” she said.

But we couldn’t see any. “I know! I’m telling you, this product is fantastic,” she said.

Seems Johansson would’ve had a great career in sales if she didn’t have that other job.

She was just 13 when she starred opposite Robert Redford in “The Horse Whisperer.” But she quickly grew into the perfect ingenue, an image she says she found hard to break out of: “Yeah, you would get really, like, pigeonholed and offered the same [roles] … the other woman, or the side piece, the bombshell. That was an archetype … when I was that age.”

Asked if she worried about not getting other offers if she turned down such parts, Johansson replied, “Yeah, oh my gosh, forever. I felt that way for so long. And every actor feels like that, because it is so competitive. And I think once you do have the spotlight, you know, you want to keep it on you. I mean, that’s the instinct, I think, for a young actor, or any actor – you know, just now that I’ve got everyone’s attention, I have to kind of keep their attention.”

But Johansson chose roles, like her Tony-winning Broadway turn in “A View From the Bridge,” that broke the bombshell barrier. And now, as an established star whose films have raked in an astonishing $15 billion, she can take aim at other goals, like building a business.

Asked if she is obsessive, Johansson said, “Yeah, I think so. In a good way. Actually in a way that serves me at The Outset; probably in other areas of my life, not as much!”

Johansson’s husband, “Saturday Night Live” star Colin Jost, has been involved in his wife’s business from the early days. Maybe drafted is more like it, as when he was conscripted to have a blue clay face mask applied. “He actually has been a guinea pig, my skin care guinea pig,” Johansson said. “I remember we had a product, it was like a face mask that had this kind of like tingling sort of sensation. And I forgot to tell him about that part of it. I think he thought … that he was having an allergic reaction to the product. He was like, ‘It’s burning! It’s burning! Like, is it supposed to be doing this?’ I was like, ‘Oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you about that. Let’s use some cool washcloths, and it’ll go away.'”

At 41, Johansson has racked up enough acclaim for someone twice her age, including Oscar nods for two different movies in the same year: “Marriage Story” and “Jojo Rabbit.” And now, a thriving business.

Asked if she tells herself, “Hey, nice, Scarlett,” she replied, “I’m getting better at it, I think. But yeah, it’s hard for me to have perspective right now. I think maybe ’cause I’m in the thick of all of it. But I’d like to get better at, I don’t know, patting myself on the back. Probably it’s a good habit to have! I don’t know that that’s, like, ingrained in me as a person. So, it’s probably something I have to, like, learn how to do more of.”

As a movie star, mother of two, and now budding skincare mogul, Scarlett Johansson is used to playing multiple roles, and she’s wise enough not to let any of them define her.

Asked if she’s achieved a work/life balance, she said, “No. I think actually admitting that there is no work/life balance is the first step to kind of getting there, in a way. ‘Cause it’s not possible. There’s always something that is, you know, a deficit in some area, I’ve learned to be more kind to myself, in that you can’t do all of these things all the time. So, you know, there’s just like, is it good enough? Yeah. Good enough!”

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Story produced by John D’Amelio. Editor: Steven Tyler.