Scarlett Johansson Reveals What She Really Thought About Colin Jost'sSNLJoke and Why She Was 'Going to Faint' Afterwards

Mar. 15, 2025

Colin Jost and Scarlett Johansson on ‘SNL’.Photo:SNL

SNL

Scarlett Johanssonknew a joke was coming, but she didn’t knowthatjoke was coming.

The actress' husbandColin Jostmade atruly loaded roast beef joke at her expense onSaturday Night Livein Decemberduring the controversial joke swap between him and his Weekend Update co-hostMichael Che.

Now, in a newInStyleprofile, Johansson, 40, admitted, “I just can’t believe that they went there."

“It was so vulgar,” she said of the joke. “It was so gross. It was really gross. And, like, old-school gross.”

She said she had a heads-up that there was a “vagina joke” coming for Jost, 42, to deliver — which Che, 41, had written — but she’d thought, “It’s a vagina joke, how bad could it be?”

“And then as soon as the Costco photo came up, I was like, ‘No! No, Michael!'” she recalled.

Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost attend SNL50 on Sunday, February 16, 2025.NBC/Jamie McCarthy/NBC via Getty

NBC/Jamie McCarthy/NBC via Getty

Johansson also said that having cameras set up to catch her real-time reaction made it all “so intense,” especially since she’d been at 30 Rock all day and felt like she was “going to faint.”

“They were waiting for me to react. I felt insane,” she said. “The fact that it took on a fullTo Catch a Predator-style reveal or whatever … All of a sudden, it was like a whole bunch of people holding up lights, and a guy with a video camera.”

Scarlett Johansson reacts to jokes on Weekend Update on ‘Saturday Night Live’.NBC

NBC

“They were like, ‘Hey, would you be okay if Michael made a little, like, kind of vagina joke at some point?’” he recalled of the question Johansson, with whomhe shares 3-year-old son Cosmo, was asked. “She was like, ‘Sure, whatever, I’m open to it.’ I didn’t know where it was going."

Jost didn’t seem to have much of a heads up, either, as he said his response to the joke — and Johansson’s reaction — was genuine.

“I can’t act that well,” he admitted.

Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Saturday Night Liveairs Saturdays at 11:35 p.m. ET on NBC.

source: people.com