"I value my privacy and my personal life - and I certainly don't exploit my personal life."

Scarlett Johansson is the highest-grossing actor on the planet. Her films have pulled in over $14.3 billion worldwide. She plays fearless, commanding, explosive characters. Yet the woman behind Black Widow grew up on food stamps in Manhattan, still avoids social media, and recently told an interviewer her main goal for 2026 is "to engage in the things that bring me joy."

That gap between public persona and private reality? It maps perfectly to Enneagram Type 9: The Peacemaker.

In April 2025, when TIME named Johansson one of their 100 Most Influential People, Marvel co-star Chris Evans wrote the tribute. His words reveal something telling:

"I consider Scarlett my older sister. Even at 17, she had wisdom, talent, and grit beyond her years."

Evans is three years older than Johansson. Yet he feels like the younger sibling. That old-soul quality, that grounded stability others instinctively lean on, is pure Type 9.

TL;DR: Why Scarlett Johansson is an Enneagram Type 9
  • Firm Boundaries: No social media. Private life stays private. Classic Type 9 protection of inner harmony.
  • Quiet Strength: Refused OpenAI twice, then went public when they seemingly copied her voice anyway. Peace-seeking until core values get violated.
  • Old Soul Since Childhood: Grew up on food stamps with four siblings. Got passed over by a talent agent at seven. Turned rejection into fuel without losing her grounded center.
  • Collaborative Leadership: Her skincare company The Outset and directorial debut Eleanor the Great both reflect Type 9 harmony-driven, inclusive leadership.
  • Adaptable Yet Grounded: Evans: "seamlessly transitioning between independent and mainstream films, refusing to be boxed in." Type 9s merge with environments while maintaining stable core.
  • Heritage Connection: Directing a film about Holocaust memory connects to her Type 9 desire to bridge divides and preserve stories.

Roots of a Peacemaker

Food Stamps and Five Siblings

Scarlett Ingrid Johansson was born November 22, 1984, in New York City. Her father Karsten is a Danish architect. Her mother Melanie is a New York-born producer from an Ashkenazi Jewish family whose ancestors fled Poland and Russia.

The Johansson family relied on food stamps. Five children shared the household: Scarlett, twin brother Hunter, older siblings Vanessa and Adrian, plus half-brother Christian from her father's first marriage.

"I've described my childhood as very ordinary."

Classic Type 9 minimizing. Smoothing over difficulty. Finding the peaceful center even when circumstances were tight.

The Rejection That Shaped Her

At seven, a family friend suggested the Johansson kids would be perfect for commercials. Melanie took them all on casting rounds.

Scarlett found it overwhelming: "It was like being in a beauty pageant. The other moms were really scary, and it was awful."

Then the blow landed. A talent agent signed one of her brothers instead of her.

For a Type 9 child, this rejection cuts deep. Type 9s already struggle with feeling overlooked, invisible, like they matter less than others. Being passed over for a sibling confirms that fear.

But Johansson did something with that wound. She started practicing acting by staring into the mirror until she made herself cry, channeling Judy Garland in Meet Me in St. Louis. Rejection became fuel.

Divorce and Her Grandmother

When Scarlett was thirteen, her parents split. For a Type 9 teenager, parental conflict hits hard. Their core motivation is harmony, inner and outer. Watching the family fracture threatens that foundation.

During this period, Johansson grew close to her maternal grandmother Dorothy Sloan, a bookkeeper and schoolteacher. She called Dorothy her "best friend." Type 9s often seek one stable, peaceful presence to anchor them.

Hidden Family History

Johansson's mother comes from a Jewish family originally named Schlamberg. Scarlett grew up celebrating Shabbat, Hanukkah, and Passover. Her grandmother spoke Yiddish.

"I'm a New York Jew who talks with her hands."

Then came Finding Your Roots in 2017.

On the PBS show, Johansson learned her maternal great-grandfather Saul Schlamberg had fled Poland for New York's Lower East Side in 1910, selling bananas at a market while living in poverty. His brother Moshe stayed behind.

Moshe and his daughters, Zlata (15) and Mandlit (17), died in the Warsaw Ghetto.

Reading the testimony preserved at Yad Vashem, Johansson broke down: "I promised myself I wouldn't cry, but it's hard not to."

That discovery planted a seed. It would grow into her directorial debut three decades later.

The Rise: Acting as Emotional Outlet

Johansson started as a child actor in North and The Horse Whisperer. For a Type 9, acting offers something paradoxical: permission to explore conflict, rage, intensity through characters while staying personally protected.

During The Horse Whisperer, twelve-year-old Johansson watched Robert Redford direct. "I saw the specific way he worked, the way he understood his actors," she recalled. "I had a clear thought: I want to do that someday."

That quiet aspiration took nearly three decades to realize. Type 9s don't rush their major goals.

Natalie Portman noticed something about working with Johansson:

"A lot of women, and I am among them, will be very careful. I might be like, 'this might sound stupid but is this what they would do in the scene?' She's not like that at all. She's very direct."

Johansson learned to channel assertiveness through her work. The personal life stays protected.

Fame and Boundaries

Most personality types feed off public attention. Type 9s find it draining. Johansson's solution: firm boundaries.

"I don't have a Facebook or a Twitter account."

This isn't celebrity aloofness. Social media means potential conflict, criticism, chaos. Everything a Type 9 avoids.

Inside Her Psychology

"The more you do your homework, the more you're free to be intuitive."

This captures Type 9s perfectly. Create structure and safety first. Then let creativity flow within those boundaries.

Her 2026 Intention

At a recent Outset Skincare event, someone asked Johansson her clear intention for 2026:

"My clear intention, I think, is to engage in the things that bring me joy."

Not achievement. Not status. Not conquest. Just peace. Presence. Harmony between demanding career and whatever nourishes her.

The Colin Jost Partnership

Johansson met Saturday Night Live writer Colin Jost during a hosting appearance. They started dating in 2017, got engaged in 2019, married in October 2020.

On the Goop podcast, she explained why it works:

"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.'"

Jost told The New York Times: "I think part of the reason I fell in love with her is she's a great mum. I've known Rose, my stepdaughter, since she was 2. It's weird. You get to actually preview someone as a mum."

They now have two children: daughter Rose Dorothy (11, from Johansson's previous marriage to Romain Dauriac) and son Cosmo (4, with Jost). On balancing careers and parenting:

"Really, truly couldn't do it without help. It's hard to balance between two busy schedules, but we do as much as we can."

Jost also revealed: "Games are serious business. She's really upset when I beat her at backgammon, which I do all the time."

That playful competitiveness inside a stable relationship shows healthy Type 9 behavior. Channel the stubborn streak into games, not destructive conflict.

Business Ventures: Type 9 Values in Action

The Outset

Johansson co-founded skincare line The Outset with Kate Foster Lengyel in 2022. The brand language reveals her Type 9 values: "clean, hydrating," "radically gentle."

"The Outset is the collection of essentials I wish I had 10 years ago. I struggled with sensitized skin for years before creating this clean, hydrating routine that I now use daily."

"Sensitized" skin needing gentle care. That mirrors the Type 9's own sensitivity to harshness.

By 2025, The Outset expanded to Nordstrom stores nationwide, launched in the UK through Cult Beauty, and hit over 1 million social media followers. All products use sustainable packaging. The brand donates 1% of annual sales to environmental nonprofits through 1 Percent for the Planet.

Her co-founder noted: "The idea that the best idea rises to the top. It's a collaborative process. And I love that collaborative process and being one voice in a group."

According to Lengyel, Johansson is deeply involved: "She mothers the office."

Type 9 leadership in action. Harmony through inclusion, not domination.

When a Peacemaker Fights: The OpenAI Confrontation

This event reveals healthy Type 9 psychology better than anything else.

The timeline: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman approached Johansson in September 2023 to voice ChatGPT. She declined for "personal reasons." Altman contacted her again. She declined again.

Then, in May 2024, OpenAI unveiled a voice assistant that sounded remarkably like her iconic role in the 2013 film Her. Altman himself invited the comparison, posting just the word "her" on social media after the announcement.

Johansson went public.

"I felt I did not want to be at the forefront of that. I just felt it went against my core values."

Her legal team demanded answers about the voice they called "Sky." OpenAI paused it, insisting it was based on a different actress. The damage was done.

This is Type 9 integration. 9s avoid confrontation. But when their fundamental sense of self gets violated, they become remarkably stubborn and assertive. Johansson said no twice, hoping to maintain peace. When that boundary was crossed, she moved toward Type 8 energy: direct, decisive, willing to use her power.

The controversy exposed gaps in legal protections around AI and voice likeness. Johansson became an unexpected advocate for artists' rights.

The Disney Lawsuit: Holding Firm

Another example of Type 9 integration.

Disney released Black Widow simultaneously in theaters and on Disney+ during the pandemic, violating Johansson's contract guarantee of exclusive theatrical release tied to box office bonuses. She sued.

Disney's response was brutal. They accused her of "callous disregard for the horrific and prolonged global effects of the COVID-19 pandemic."

For a Type 9, public attack like this is deeply painful. Johansson held firm. The lawsuit settled for a reported $40 million-plus.

Four years later, she reflected:

"It would be great to have more support from the community and my peers, vocally, publicly, on certain issues that affect the entire industry."

She holds no "grudge" against Disney. Classic Type 9 ability to move past conflict once resolved. But she clearly wished others had spoken up. For a personality type that struggles to advocate for themselves, watching peers stay silent was its own wound.

Evolution: Director, Producer, Highest-Grossing Actor

Her company These Pictures has multiple projects in development. But the real milestone was behind the camera.

Eleanor the Great

In 2025, Johansson realized that dream from The Horse Whisperer. Nearly three decades later.

Her directorial debut Eleanor the Great premiered at Cannes in May 2025. Five-minute standing ovation. Released in the US on September 26, 2025, through Sony Pictures Classics.

The story: Eleanor (95-year-old June Squibb) gets mistaken for a Holocaust survivor and goes along with it while trying to make new friends after moving to New York City. Tender, humorous, about intergenerational friendship and preserving stories.

"I don't know if I would have felt comfortable telling this story if I weren't Jewish."

Johansson cast real Holocaust survivors as support group members. The film bridges generational divides, finds connection in unexpected places, creates harmony between different worlds. Pure Type 9 storytelling.

"The film celebrates heritage and the importance of preserving the Jewish people's stories. That is something I can absolutely relate to because I lost many relatives in the Holocaust."

Jurassic World Rebirth

Jurassic World Rebirth opened July 2, 2025. Johansson achieved a childhood dream and a record.

"It was a childhood dream of mine to be in this movie. I've been trying to get in the 'Jurassic' universe for three decades."

She plays Zora Bennett, a covert operations expert extracting dinosaur samples from an island facility. To get the role, Johansson arranged a meeting with Steven Spielberg himself. Rare assertiveness for a Type 9.

The film grossed over $869 million worldwide, pushing Johansson past Tom Cruise to become the highest-grossing actor on the planet.

One detail: she faced her "greatest phobia" during filming. Cockroaches. The set was infested. For someone whose core drive is peace and comfort, voluntarily confronting that shows commitment.

The Phoenician Scheme

Johansson reunited with Wes Anderson for The Phoenician Scheme, premiering at Cannes on May 18, 2025. She plays Cousin Hilda Sussman-Korda alongside Benicio del Toro, Tom Hanks, and an ensemble cast. 77% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.

What's Next

Her slate shows range:

  • The Exorcist: Martyrs: Mike Flanagan's reimagining of the horror classic. Johansson plays a small-town "rookie detective" investigating "inconceivable darkness." Flanagan: "Scarlett is a brilliant actress whose captivating performances always feel grounded and real." 2027 release.

  • Just Cause: Her first television lead. Amazon Prime Video limited series based on the 1992 John Katzenbach novel. In the 1995 film adaptation, child Johansson played Sean Connery's daughter. Now she plays reporter Madison "Madi" Cowart covering a death row inmate who claims innocence.

  • Featherwood: True-crime thriller where she plays an FBI informant. Also producing.

What Type 9s Can Learn From Johansson

Johansson proves Type 9s don't have to be passive or invisible to maintain peace. Create firm boundaries. Channel empathy into work. Know when to stand firm.

Fellow Type 9 Keanu Reeves shares this quality. The gentle warrior who stays calm in chaos.

Chris Evans in his TIME100 tribute:

"I learn from her, I lean on her, and I look up to her. There's absolutely nothing she can't do."

He's three years older but describes himself as the younger sibling. That's the grounding presence healthy Type 9s embody.

The lesson: Type 9 growth isn't about becoming more aggressive. It's about learning when harmony requires action rather than avoidance.

The Peaceful Core

From food stamps in Manhattan to highest-grossing actor on the planet. That arc shows something about Type 9s. Peace isn't just avoiding conflict. It's creating harmony in whatever circumstances arrive.

Johansson's career offers a map: Build boundaries early. Channel intensity through your work. Know when peace requires fighting for it. And find those stable relationships that anchor everything else.

The woman who craves quiet became Hollywood's biggest star. Not despite her peaceful core. Because of it.

Disclaimer: This analysis is speculative based on publicly available information and may not reflect Scarlett Johansson's actual personality type.