Scarlett Johansson Explains Why She Won’t Take Photos With Fans

Scarlett Johansson has set a clear boundary with fans: no selfies in public.

The Jurassic World Rebirth actress, 40, is happy to take photos with fans at movie premieres or outside the Today show, but she does not allow fans to take pictures with her if they run into her in the wild, say at a store or restaurant. Johansson explained that she knows her stance isn’t a popular one, but she finds it helps her set a healthy boundary.

“It really offends a lot of people,” she admitted in an InStyle cover story published Tuesday, March 11. “It doesn’t mean I’m not appreciative, of course, that people are fans, or happy to see me. But I always say to people, ‘I’m not working.’ [And that means] I don’t want to be identified as being in this time and place with you. I’m doing my own thing.”

The actress, who will make her directorial debut later this year, likes her privacy and wants to make sure her children can have normal childhoods. (Johansson shares daughter Rose, 10, with ex-husband Romain Dauriac and son Cosmo, 3, with husband Colin Jost.)

She even refuses to join social media despite increasing pressure. Johansson nearly joined Instagram when launching her skincare brand, The Outset, in 2022.

“I got close enough to talk to my therapist about it. I was like, ‘I guess this is something I need to do. But it goes against my core values,’” she said with a laugh.

She’ll occasionally pop up on The Outset’s Instagram, but she isn’t ready to actually have her own account — though that doesn’t stop her colleagues from asking.

“I mean, even today, I got an email from Universal [Pictures], 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,” Johansson admitted. “Is there a way I could do this and stay true to who I am? It didn’t feel like I could.”

She added, “The work that I put out there is all based in truth. That’s 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.”

The next Jurassic movie certainly has the makings of a summer blockbuster. Johansson stars as Zora Bennett, a covert operative who joins Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) and Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali) to collect dinosaur DNA for a life-saving drug. The mission quickly spirals out of control when they become stranded on an island full of mutated dinosaur experiments.

Jurassic World Rebirth is set to hit theaters on July 2.