Red carpet events should be old hat for Scarlett Johansson by now, but the longtime actress was recently floored when she was asked to watch footage of a woman disappearing in the background of one interview video she appeared in. After The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon shared a viral clip of a woman literally seeming to disappear behind the actress, things took a bit of a shocking turn when the Asteroid City actress admitted the woman was her own dear mother.
No, really. The video was running around on TikTok before Fallon’s team caught wind of it. It’s from a 2006 Golden Globes Awards red carpet, the year the actress starred in films like The Black Dahlia and The Prestige, and in it Johansson’s mom briefly appears onscreen before seemingly disappearing into thin air. The whole thing is wild, and while I’m sure it’s just a camera angle thing, I have no idea what the explanation for what happened is.
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Apparently, the actress had never seen this clip of herself and the mysterious disappearing woman, but shockingly the woman in the video is Johansson’s actual mother, Melanie Sloan, which she revealed after the late night host shared the video on the air. You can actually see her mom pop up in the back of some of the professional photos she took on the night of the event too. Not sure if this was pre or post her disappearing act, but she looks fine.
Regardless, when confronted with her mom literally disappearing before her eyes, Johansson had a really funny attitude about it.
Oh my God, that is my mom. That is my mom. That woman with the dark hair is my mother. That’s my mom! I’ve been looking for her for like the last 15 years.
It seems pretty clear from The Tonight Show clip that Fallon and his team had no idea what they were getting into when they decided to present this clip to Scarlett Johansson, but as it turns out the payoff of showing her the video was even better than expected. You can see the full late night exchange, below.
Scarlett Johansson went on late night TV to promote her new skincare line, which she recently tested out on husband Colin Jost’s face, though fans are pumped about her Tower of Terror movie and other projects coming up. I suppose we’ll have to wait and see if the actress brings her mom to any of those premieres though.