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Avengers: Age of Ultron star Scarlett Johansson covers the latest issue of Parade and opens up about family life with husband Romain Dauriac and their 7-month-old daughter Rose.

On motherhood: “The biggest joy that I have is looking at my daughter. When I’m just hanging out with her and we’re doing silly stuff and if I make her laugh, the feeling of joy I have is explosive. If I can make her laugh and she gets a big smile on her face, that’s pretty much it. If only you could actually bottle that and carry it around.”

On raising her daughter in the spotlight: “It’s hard. On the one hand, you don’t want to isolate your kids, but you don’t want to make your kids feel like freaks: There’s this fascination with famous kids, like they’re celebrity spawn. I have many luxuries of fame, but I make my own bed. I like to buy my groceries. I drive my car. I like to do the normal, everyday things that I’ve always enjoyed. It doesn’t mean that when I drive out of my garage, I don’t fear that I’m being followed by somebody, because I probably am. But there’s always going to be an adjustment. At some point, you have to take your life back and say, ‘You know what? If I feel like picking up my dry cleaning and if someone’s going to photograph me doing it, so what?’ Part of being with your kids is making them feel as safe and normal as you can.”

On making marriage work: “Acting is a very strange world to be co-existing in. It’s very volatile. There’s always going to be the more successful person. It’s related to rejection. Because actors, if they’re not having success, connect it directly to unpopularity—to the fact that nobody wants them. It’s not necessarily true. I’m constantly rejected. [Marriage] takes a lot of work. It takes a man who’s not only confident in the love that you have for one another, but confident in what he has going on in his own career. He has to be in a field that’s completely different from yours. My husband’s also involved in art. What’s important to him is the recognition that he gets from his job, and that has nothing to do with my job.”

On dividing time between Paris and NYC: “I live a little bit of everywhere. My husband and I and the baby are a little bit nomadic at the moment. We like to go out and go dancing. Other times, we like to sit at home and eat Thai food and watch House Hunters International for four hours. And we’re interested in each other’s worlds. He’s interested in my weird, alien entertainment world. It fascinates him because it’s so different than what he knows. And I like to go to art openings with him and talk about art and emerging artists with him. That’s his passion.”

For more from Scarlett, go to Parade