Scarlett Johansson is shutting down an “outrageous” rumor that she said haunted her for years.
The “Marvel” star, 37, appeared on the “9 to 5ish with theSkimm” podcast and was asked if she could recall a “weird headline you’ve read about yourself or random things you’ve heard about yourself.”
“There was a rumor that went around for a very long time that said that I had sex in an elevator,” she said about a lingering rumor that she got intimate in an elevator with actor Benicio del Toro.
“They probably still write those things about people, maybe, but I felt like when I was younger, it was more acceptable to write really nasty, slutty things about young actresses,” Johansson continued of the report.
“That was a story that followed me for a long time, but I always thought that was outrageous. And also, I always was like thinking to myself, ‘Oh, that would be tough,'” added the actress. “The very short period of … the logistics of that seem so unappealing to me. I’m the person who’s terrified of being caught doing something I’m not supposed to be doing. So that made the story even that much more absurd to me, if you know me personally.”
While Del Toro’s name was not brought up during the lightning-round episode, the “Sicario” actor, now 55, appeared to tiptoe around speculation over him and Johansson in 2005 during an interview with Esquire.
“Did I ever have sex in an elevator with Scarlett Johansson after an awards show?” he said, “I kind of like, you know, I, well, I don’t know.”
“Let’s leave that to somebody’s imagination. Let’s not promote it,” he added. “I’m sure it has happened before. It might not be the last time, either.”
Last year, Johansson welcomed a son, Cosmo, with husband and “Saturday Night Live” star Colin Jost. She is also mother to a daughter Rose, whom she shares with her ex-husband Romain Dauriac.
