Miss Scarlett

She’s the Highest-grossing Actress in Hollywood History, So the Name of Scarlett Johansson’s Character in Sci-fi Film Ghost in the Shell Is Particularly Apt: the Major.

- Brooke Hauser

In 2015, Scarlett Johansson was presenting at the Oscars, walking the red carpet in an emerald Atelier Versace gown and a dramatic matching Swarovski necklace. But she was more concerned with another accessory. “I had to bring my breast pump, because I was nursing and every ounce is like liquid gold,” says the actress, who had given birth to her daughter, Rose, five months earlier. After the ceremony, she reunited with it in the company of mutual friends Kelly Ripa and her husband, Mark Consuelos, but not for long.

“Somehow, Mark got ahold of my breast pump— in a bag with all the milk, ice packs in there, and shit. He grabbed it out of my hand,” Johansson recalls. He was just trying to help, she explains, “but our cars got separated. Apparently, Kelly looked over, and she was like, ‘Wait a minute—is that Scarlett’s breast pump? We’ve got to get it back!’ because she knew how panicked I would be. We finally ended up at the same party three hours later, and Mark was like, ‘I’m so sorry.’”

Johansson, 32, laughs her throaty laugh and takes a sip of rooibos tea. Sitting with her in the Gotham Lounge at The Peninsula hotel in Manhattan, it’s hard not to feel a sense of kinship. Minutes ago, I was pumping in the hotel bathroom—she told her story in solidarity. “It’s very humbling,” she says of motherhood. When I absentmindedly shift around my maternity bra, she asks, “How’s your boobs? Are they square? That was always my favourite.”