2006-11-28T23:02:00.000-08:00

Biography for Scarlett Johansson
Birth name
Scarlett I. Johansson
Height
5' 4" (1.63 m)
Mini biography
Johansson's performance as Grace in The Horse Whisperer (1998) earned her a Hollywood Reporter Young Star award. And previously her Manny & Lo (1996) role received a nod by the Independent Spirit Awards. Scarlett has an older brother and sister and a twin brother. She divides her time between New York with her dad, and Los Angeles with her mother. Her acting career was launched in the off-Broadway production of 'Sophistry' with Ethan Hawke.
IMDb mini-biography by
Kim T.
Mini biography
Scarlett Johansson was born on 22 November 1984 in New York City to Melanie Johansson (of Polish descent) and Karsten Johansson (of Danish descent). Scarlett showed a passion for acting at a young age and starred in many plays. She has a sister named Vanessa Johansson, a brother named Adrian, and a twin brother named Hunter Johansson born three minutes after her.She began her acting career in 1994 starring as "Laura Nelson" in North (1994). In 1998, the acclaimed film The Horse Whisperer (1998) brought Johansson critical praise and worldwide recognition. Following the film's success, she starred in many other films including the critically acclaimed cult film Ghost World (2001) and then the hit Lost in Translation (2003) with Bill Murray in which she again stunned critics. Later on, she appeared in Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003).In 2003, she was nominated for two Golden Globes, one for drama (Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003)) and one for comedy (Lost in Translation (2003)). She dropped out of Mission: Impossible III (2006) due to scheduling conflicts. Her next film role was in The Island (2005) alongside Ewan McGregor which earned weak reviews from U.S. critics.After this, she appeared in Woody Allen's Match Point (2005) and was nominated again for a Golden Globe.
IMDb mini-biography by
Jack Pearce
Trivia
Received an "introducing" credit for The Horse Whisperer (1998) although it was her seventh feature film.
Has a twin brother, Hunter Johansson.
Attended and graduated in 2002 from Professional Children's School in Manhattan, New York City.
Grandchild of writer Ejner Johansson.
Is of Polish/Danish descent.
Was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in June 2004.
Applied to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts for the fall 2003 semester, but was not accepted. The rejection allowed her to focus on her career, which blossomed soon after.
Shortly after Lost in Translation (2003) was released, she said she had a connection to older men and couldn't see herself dating anyone under 30. True to her word, she had a relationship with actor Benicio Del Toro, who is 17 years her senior.
Was cast as Rebecca in Thumbsucker (2005), but dropped out before filming commenced and was replaced by Kelli Garner.
Her father Karsten Johansson, a NY architect, and mother Melanie Johansson, her manager, now divorced, separated when she was 13.
Campaigned for John Kerry in the 2004 Presidential Election.
Celebrated her 20th birthday at Disneyland.
Auditioned for a role in The Parent Trap (1998), which finally went to Lindsay Lohan.
Has an older half-brother (Christian), an older sister (Vanessa), an older brother (Adrian) & a twin brother (Hunter)
Planned to attend Purchase University to study film
Her older sister, Vanessa Johansson, is also an actress.
Prepared for her role in Lost in Translation (2003) by living on Hokkaido with then boyfriend Faiz Ahmad.
She is three minutes older than twin brother Hunter Johansson. She says these three minutes are the most important in her life.
Had tonsillectomy.
First role (uncredited) was in a skit during the first year of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" (1993) at age 8. She relived this moment during an interview with Conan on July 12, 2005, twelve years later.
Father Karsten Johansson was born in Denmark, while her mother, Melanie Johansson, comes from a Bronx-bred family of Polish descent.
Ranked #9 in FHM's 100 Sexiest Women in the World (2005). And was also the highest ranking new entry to the list.
Named #24 on the Maxim magazine Hot 100 of 2005 list.
Director Sofia Coppola directed both Scarlett and her boyfriend Josh Hartnett, but not in the same movie. Scarlett was in Coppola's Lost in Translation (2003) and Hartnett starred in The Virgin Suicides (1999)
She donated many items to Rocky Stone to be given to less fortunate kids as part of the Toy Mountain Campaign.
Was featured as #63 in Maxim Magazine's "Hot 100 of 2002" supplement. (2002)
Named #6 on Maxim magazines "Hot 100" list of 2006
Chosen by FHM readers as "Sexiest Woman Alive" in FHM's 100 Sexiest Women in the World (2006).
Has a cat named Trooper.
Named "Sexiest Woman Alive" by Esquire Magazine [October, 2006].
Named #1 in FHM magazine's "100 Sexiest Women in the World 2006" supplement. (2006).
Member of the jury at the Venice Film Festival in 2004.
Personal quotes
"I'm so tired of hearing casting directors ask if I have a sore throat. The people who have told me that my voice is distinctive, it's unusual...those people have always been close to my heart."
"It would be hellish to have the pressure of putting on a Hollywood ending or putting in a scene where Vermeer sees Griet washing her breasts" - commenting on why she was glad that Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003) was a small foreign production.
"I always check in the mirror to make sure nothing is see-through."
I have a lot of actor friends who worked with their parents closely and have had really horrible experiences. They end up suing or being emancipated. The wonderful thing about my mom [who is also her manager] is that she completely respects my creative weirdness and supports any decision I make.
As long as people keep buying tabloids, they'll keep harassing people in the public eye. They'll make up stories.
On David Hasselhoff, after they had both worked on The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004): "I so fancied him when I was young, that to see my name on the credits next to his makes me go all girly. He was a hunk back in those days."
"I have an obsessive character. I manicure my nails at three in the morning because nobody else can do it the right way. Maybe that's the secret to my success."
"It's a great thing to get older and learn. I don't feel bound in any way by how many years I've lived. I identify just as much with my 86-year-old grandmother as I do with my sister."
"People forget what it's like to be a child. When you're a child actress, people sometimes regress into being obnoxious and patronizing. But there's no reason to dumb things down just because you're working with kids."
"What I respect most in people is naturalness and authenticity. I like to be able to see into their soul. I aspire to being a truthful person."
"The most precious moment in life is when you're about to fall in love. You're lying in bed together and he's gazing at you and you're gazing at him and there's a sense that something truly wondrous is about to happen. It's a nervous moment - but it's exhilarating."
"I am very independent. I can look after myself but I still need a lot of love and care."
"I don't talk about my personal relationships, it always ends up kicking you in the face. But I've read a lot of things about myself and think, `Wow! That girl sounds really saucy.'"
"I think that I sort of see other actresses are kind of proud of the way they look and show it off. That's never really been my style. I really don't think that it's disgusting or wrong, if you're 18 you're 18, it's your body, it's your right to show yourself, however, I don't really take a part in that. I like to look nice, but I think that there's ways of doing it that are more tasteful than just wearing a bikini wherever you go."
"I don't know if I've got swept up. It's so shocking when you hear that Calvin Klein wants you for their new campaign. You're like, 'who me?'. I guess you have to decide where you draw the line between you saying, this is fun, pretty and fabulous, and being over-exposed."
"Well, you put a little piece of yourself into every character that you do. Even if you're playing some psychotic person, which of course I'm not, some part of you is in that character and it's hopefully believable. I always come back to the fact that my own instinct is better than something I build in my mind."
"Tons of that stuff comes to me, but a lot of it is awful. All these teenage slaying movies, and movies about girls that have deformities that become cheerleaders and then marry the prom king!"
"I always had the chance to do whatever I wanted to do, my parents were very open about that. Acting has been a passion of mine. I wanted to be in musicals as a kid, and took tap dance, so for me it's a dream come true, my childhood was filled with things that I loved to do, and also very normal things: I lived in New York, I have a family life and went to a regular school. If anything, I look back and think, 'Wow, I did a lot of things that a lot of people don't get to do in their lifetime'."
"It's a place of solace. I love London, it's an amazing city. I've met some wonderful people there and I also have some family there. I'm from New York, so I feel very at home in London. It's like a metropolitan breeding ground for culture, art, music and diversity. It's a beautiful city, with beautiful history. In Hollywood, it's hard to step outside of the circle once you're in it. But in London I was really moved by how accepted I felt there. There was definitely less need to wear my big sunglasses!"
"I came home and I thought I was going to die. I was in agony. I had muscles that had atrophied. I couldn't run any longer and it was only the first day. But, actually, Ewan was in the same boat. He had black and blue marks all over him. So, it wasn't so bad since someone else was in agony." [On filming The Island (2005)]
"I don't think there's any kind of preparation for sudden celebrity. I think you almost have this slight nervous breakdown when that kind of media attention happens. I mean, you're doing the same kind of thing that you do all the time, only you have to make these weird adjustments. Like, you're buying a slice of pizza and somebody's outside photographing you which is weird - that's not normal! It's very uncomfortable."
"Everyone in Hollywood is so damn skinny and you constantly feel like you're not skinny enough. But I have 'fat days' and I accept that I'm never going to be rail thin. It's hard not to feel pressure in this industry and I already use anti-aging products on my skin. I try not to let the pressure get to me but Los Angeles is a very hard place to be unless you have people here that love you. It can be very, very lonely, and it can eat you up if you don't take care of yourself."
"I was driving through Los Angeles and I look up and see the biggest photo of me I have ever seen in my life on a massive ad space. I screamed and slammed on the brakes. I couldn't believe it. It's very strange to see my cleavage the size of a brontosaurus. My breasts were huge. I had long hair and my goodness, I couldn't get past the cleavage."
"I don't think human beings are monogamous by nature. It's difficult - you have to put a lot of effort into a relationship. I think it's hard for actors to date each other because they are so damn moody. You are away from people constantly and having a relationship that is strictly by phone, it is miserable. Or if you say to him/her, 'Hey, (even though) I am doing a very sexy scene with this very sexy girl/boy, I love you and I'm going to be thinking of you when I am rolling around in bed with this person!'"
"We are supposed to be liberated in America but if our President had his way, we wouldn't be educated about sex at all. Every woman would have six children and we wouldn't be able to have abortions."
Where are they now
(May 2006) Filming The Nanny Diaries (2007) in New York.

Scarlett Johanson