She’s played assassins, spies, and superheroes—but Scarlett Johansson says her greatest teacher was just eight years old. “She didn’t care about Black Widow,” she laughs. “She just wanted her mom.” In her most honest confession yet, Johansson reveals how motherhood taught her to stop chasing perfection—and start embracing the messy, beautiful truth of being real.

So much of it didn’t feel very cool when we were shooting it.”

scarlett johansson as black widow

Before The Avengers became the MCU’s global phenomenon we all know and love, the stacked cast wasn’t exactly sure the movie whether the movie was going to be a hit.

Scarlett Johansson looked back on the movie that brought the Marvel superheroes, including her Black Widow, together.

In a recent chat with Vanity Fair, the Lost In Translation star admitted that having all the superheroes together in one story “felt like a big mess”.

“When we made the first Avengers, none of us knew what the potential of this, of the Avengers particularly, would be,” she said.

She explained that each superhero, from Iron Man to Captain America and Thor, had a specific identity that the cast wasn’t sure whether a joint adventure could work tonally.

“When you added the characters all together, plus Hulk and Hawkeye… it just felt like a big mess, to be honest,” she said.

“Even on the set, it felt crazy because we all looked insane. It was like, ‘What are we doing?’, you know? I don’t think anybody really knew if this was gonna work or not.”

Released in 2012, Avengers sees a group of superheroes being recruited to stop Thor’s brother Loki from gaining control of Earth.

The film went on to gross $1.521 billion against a $225 million budget and spawned three sequels, so it’s safe to say Johansson’s and her co-stars’ “blind faith” in the project was rewarded.

Marvel Studios

Looking back on the movie, the Natasha Romanoff star said there was one crucial scene that made her realise Avengers could make it — and it’s one of the first moments where the gang comes together.

“I remember the scene where we all are right in front of Grand Central [Station in NYC]… The big scene where you see the 360 of all the characters together,” she said.

“That was the moment where all of us were like, ‘I think this is maybe gonna work’.

“It felt powerful. When we watched the playback, it looked really cool, but so much of it didn’t feel very cool when we were shooting it.