Scarlett Johansson’s recent red-carpet birthday milestone — her first appearance in the public eye at 40 — ignited a wave of superficial criticism online. Commenters suggested she looked “older than her age,” with one of the more pointed remarks claiming she appeared “like she’s 50 with wrinkles and outdated style.”
It was not a discussion of her directorial debut.
Not her blockbuster slate.
Not the extraordinary box-office data attached to her name.
It was, instead, the decades-old scrutiny pattern that women in public life still routinely face: the idea that their value is tied to the ability to visually avoid the normal passage of time.
Colin Jost responds — directly and gently
Her husband, Colin Jost, pushed back in a short post — a tone notably different from the online jeers. His line immediately became the counter-headline:
“Scarlett is most beautiful when she’s herself — wrinkles are traces of a smile, not a flaw. Whoever criticizes her should look in the mirror.”
It reframed the discourse in a sentence: age is not a defect — and the record of an expressive life is not an error.
Forty — and expanding, not contracting
Johansson’s year at 40 — by any industry measurement — is not a plateau, but a pivot point:
| Category | Recent milestone |
|---|---|
| Global cumulative box office | $15.4 billion (highest-grossing lead actor in film history — early 2025 data) |
| Directorial debut | Eleanor the Great — Cannes Un Certain Regard premiere (2025) |
| Franchise return | Lead role in Jurassic World: Rebirth |
| Business | Founder of The Outset, a clean-skincare brand launched in 2022 |
She is also a two-time Academy Award nominee for 2019’s Marriage Story and Jojo Rabbit.
This is not the profile of an artist in retreat — it is the profile of an artist expanding her influence, adding new creative lanes, and asserting control over vision, text, and commerce.
The bigger story
Jost’s sentence resonated because it undercut a very old narrative: that visible age is a metric of decline.
Johansson’s actual record points the other direction.
The work is strong; the evolution is ongoing; the influence is durable.
A red carpet can be a moment — but a career is a body of evidence.
The conversation Jost sparked — intentionally or not — is this:
A life that shows signs of being lived is not something to hide.