We’re living in an era of brevity, and if words can be combined or shortened for the sake of convenience or a reduced character count, all the better. Nobody goes to the refrigerator to get mayonnaise anymore; we go to the fridge for mayo. We’ve had Brangelinas, Bennifers and Kimyes. Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift’s relationship has been shortened to TNT (or 🧨, if you’re feeling cute). So how do celebs like Scarlett Johansson feel when people call them by these nicknames?
Scarlett Johansson paid a visit to The Today Show, where she hung out with Jenna Bush Hager on Today with Jenna & Friends. The host may not have called her child a swear word, but she did hit a nerve by mentioning the nickname “ScarJo” that those in the media have regularly adopted. Johansson didn’t hold back when Bush Hager asked her about it, saying:
I hate that name.
Jenna Bush Hager was shocked to learn that the Lost in Translation star had not come up with the portmanteau version of her name, but Scarlett Johansson confirmed that’s not something we’d hear come out of her friends and family’s mouths. The actress continued:
It’s nothing anybody ever called me when I was growing up. Nobody in my life calls me that. So if somebody calls me that, I immediately am like, ‘You don’t know me.’
I can definitely see how it could be annoying or even unnerving to have someone you don’t know call you by a nickname, as if they’re trying to be more familiar than they should be. That’s probably doubly true for nicknames that were created by the media and not within one’s close circle.
Scarlett Johansson said she doesn’t know who was the first person to truncate her name, but she jokingly blamed JLo, saying it started around the same time that Jennifer Lopez adopted the moniker. Unfortunately for the two-time Oscar nominee, her name just shortens so easily into ScarJo, putting her in a category with J-Hud, K-Stew, A-Rod and more who inherited a nickname, whether they liked it or not.
This whole situation has me wondering if the actress is rethinking the nickname she gave Robert Redford on the set of The Horse Whisperer. Scarlett Johansson starred in the book-to-screen adaptation when she was 12 years old, getting close enough to her co-star and director to call him “Bob.” However, she took it a step further, admitting that she adorably called him “Booey.”
Of course, speaking to the point she made to Jenna Bush Hager, Scarlett Johansson knew Robert Redford, unlike apparently anybody who calls her ScarJo in the wild.
This has been a pretty exciting year for the Marriage Story star. She’s had a couple of projects come out, including her directorial debut Eleanor the Great, starring June Squibb, and she’s got even more coming to the 2026 movie calendar, so keep your eyes out. Just don’t call her ScarJo!