Scarlett Johansson grew up on welfare.

Scarlett Johansson

Scarlett Johansson

The 'Ghost in the Shell' star - who was the highest-grossing actor of 2016 - has revealed how her family would live off food stamps when she was a kid and whilst her mum "tried to be a buffer", it was difficult for them all.

Speaking in a preview clip for her Inside the Actors Studio interview, she said: "We were living on welfare, we were on food stamps. My parents were raising four kids in a low-income household in Manhattan. So, it was a lot.

"My mom tried to be as much as a buffer as possible with that experience. But by the time my twin brother and I came around, I think my parents' marriage, it had a lot of strain."

Meanwhile, Scarlett - who has two-year-old daughter Rose with her estranged husband Romain Dauriac - previously admitted she found it "grounding" to keep working whilst she was raising her daughter.

She said: "Even when I was shooting ['Ghost in the Shell'] I was still nursing. That is a very grounding [thing.]

"If you ever needed to return to yourself, that is a pretty wonderful way to come back to yourself when you go home. You have to leave all that work stuff behind and be able to present with your kid. I am very thankful that's my reality at the end of the day."

However, she doesn't feel motherhood has changed her working life.

She explained: "I have a job that's very advantageous in that way. I can parent and then go do the scene and go back and parent. There's a bit of back and forth, but it works.

"[Has it changed what work I do?] It hasn't but it might in a few years. Again, it's a job that works with you. I have a freedom that others don't, so I'm grateful."


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