Scarlett Johansson recalls awkward first date with Colin Jost

Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost’s love story had an awkward beginning.

The “Black Widow” actress, 41, revealed that she acted “weird” on her first date with her now-husband, who thought their relationship wouldn’t pan out.

“Nobody had ever asked me out before,” Johansson said while guest co-hosting Monday’s episode of “Today with Jenna & Friends.” “I was a serial monogamist and I never got the sort of traditional like, ‘Hey would you like to have dinner sometime?’”

Johansson, who was a two-time divorcee at the time, gave Jost a chance in 2017, over ten years after they first met on the set of “Saturday Night Live.”

“He actually asked me out on a date,” she recalled. “We went to an Italian restaurant in the East Village. It was a lovely date. We had dinner. Afterward, he was like, ‘I’m meeting friends, let’s go grab a drink,’ and I hadn’t dated basically ever so I was just like, ‘I have to go now.’ I need to leave.’”

“And I got home to relieve my babysitter and it was like 9:36 and she was like, ‘Why are you home?’” the Oscar nominee continued. “I was like, ‘I went on this date, and it was…’ I just felt so flustered.’”

Jost, according to Johansson, even told his future wife that he noticed her odd behavior.

“Later on he was like, ‘I totally thought that was it. You were acting so weird,’” she recalled. “I panicked. I don’t know.”

The couple met in 2006 when Johansson was hosting “SNL” and Jost worked in the writer’s room. They started dating in 2017, got married in Oct. 2020, and welcomed their son Cosmo in Aug. 2021.

Johansson was previously married to actor Ryan Reynolds from 2008 to 2011 and journalist Romain Dauriac from 2014 to 2017. She shares daughter Rose, 11, with Dauriac, 43.

Jost reflected on his first impression of Johansson in his 2020 memoir, “A Very Punchable Face.”

“She has just turned 20 and I was 23, but in terms of status and maturing she was here [holds hand above head] and I was here [holds hand one inch off ground],” he wrote. “She claims that she remembers thinking I was ‘cute,’ but I know what I looked like and that’s not the word I would have used.”

Jost further recalled that the “Marriage Story” actress had “a grace and a smile that I’ve still never seen in any other human.” 

In April 2023, Johansson told Gwyneth Paltrow on “The Goop Podcast” that her relationship with Jost works because they “move around the world in the same way.”

“I never realized, ‘Oh, it’s really important for me, I need to be with a compassionate person. That’s a fundamental characteristic that has to be there,’” she shared. “It worked with Colin and I because I was finally able to step back and respect myself enough to know what those were.”