Scarlett Johansson Biography
Scarlett Johansson (born November 22, 1984) is an American actress, model and singer.
Johansson made her film debut in North (1994) and was later nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead for her performance in Manny & Lo (1996). She rose to further prominence with her roles in The Horse Whisperer (1998) and Ghost World (2001). She shifted to adult roles with her performances in Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003) and Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation (2003), for which she won a BAFTA award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Both films earned her Golden Globe Award nominations.
A role in A Love Song for Bobby Long (2004) earned Johansson a third Golden Globe for Best Actress nomination. Johansson garnered another Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress with her role in Woody Allen's Match Point (2005). She went on to star in two further Allen movies: Scoop (2006) and Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008). Johansson has appeared in other successful films, such as Christopher Nolan's The Prestige (2006). Johansson played popular Marvel comic book character Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff in the films Iron Man 2 (2010) and The Avengers (2012).
The 2010 Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's A View From the Bridge gave Johansson some of her best reviews for her acting, and she received a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play. On May 20, 2008, Johansson debuted as a vocalist on her first album, Anywhere I Lay My Head, which comprises mostly cover versions of Tom Waits songs. Her second album, Break Up, with Pete Yorn, was released in September 2009.
The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce honored Scarlett Johansson with the 2,470th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on May 2, 2012 in front of Madame Tussauds in Hollywood.
Scarlett Johansson Biography
Early life
Johansson was born in New York City on November 22, 1984. Her father, Karsten Johansson, is a Danish-born architect originally from Copenhagen, and her paternal grandfather, Ejner Johansson, was a screenwriter and director. Her mother, Melanie Sloan, a producer, comes from an Ashkenazi Jewish family from the Bronx. Johansson's mother's ancestors immigrated to the U.S. from Minsk, Belarus. She has an older sister, Vanessa, who is an actress; an older brother, Adrian; a twin brother, Hunter (who appeared with her in the film Manny & Lo); and an older half-brother, Christian, from her father's first marriage.
Johansson grew up in a household with "little money", and with a mother who was a "film buff". She and her brother, Hunter, attended P.S. 41 in upper-middle-class Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan for elementary school. Johansson began her theatrical training by attending and graduating from Professional Children's School in Manhattan in 2002.
Early roles
Johansson began acting during childhood, after her mother started taking her to auditions. She made her film debut at nine years old, as John Ritter's daughter in the 1994 fantasy comedy North. Following minor roles in the 1995 film Just Cause, as the daughter of Sean Connery and Kate Capshaw, and If Lucy Fell in 1996, she played the role of Amanda in Manny & Lo (1996). Her performance in Manny & Lo garnered a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Female, and positive reviews, one noting, "[the film] grows on you, largely because of the charm of ... Scarlett Johansson", while San Francisco Chronicle critic Mick LaSalle commentated on her "peaceful aura", and wrote, "If she can get through puberty with that aura undisturbed, she could become an important actress."
Scarlett Johansson Biography
After appearing in minor roles in Fall and Home Alone 3 in 1997, Johansson garnered widely spread attention for her performance in the 1998 film The Horse Whisperer, directed by Robert Redford. She received a nomination for the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Actress for the film. In 1999, she appeared in My Brother the Pig and in 2001 in the neo-noir Coen brothers film The Man Who Wasn't There. Also in 1999, she appeared in the music video for Mandy Moore's single, "Candy". Although the film was not a box office success, she received praise for her break-out role in the 2001 film, Ghost World. Credited with "sensitivity and talent [that] belie her age", Johansson went on to win the Toronto Film Critics Association Awards for Best Supporting Actress and was nominated for the Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress. In 2002, Johansson appeared in the comedy-horror thriller Eight Legged Freaks, starring David Arquette.
Transition to adult roles
Johansson made the transition from teen roles to adult roles, with two such roles in 2003. In the Sofia Coppola film Lost in Translation, she played Charlotte, an abandoned young wife, opposite Bill Murray. Roger Ebert wrote that he loved the film and described the performances of Johansson and Murray as "wonderful." Entertainment Weekly wrote of Johansson's "embracing, restful serenity," and the New York Times said, "At 18, the actress gets away with playing a 25-year-old woman by using her husky voice to test the level of acidity in the air ... Ms. Johansson is not nearly as accomplished a performer as Mr. Murray, but Ms. Coppola gets around this by using Charlotte's simplicity and curiosity as keys to her character."Johansson won the BAFTA Award and the Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress. She received nominations from a number of film critic organizations, including the Broadcast Film Critics Association, and the Chicago Film Critics Association,
Scarlett Johansson Biography
Johansson played Griet in Peter Webber's Girl with a Pearl Earring. While noting, "Audiences feel as if they are spying on a moment of artistic inspiration when painter Vermeer creates the title work", USA Today praised her, suggesting, "[She] is having a banner year that Oscar voters should recognize." In his review for the New Yorker, Anthony Lane said, "What keeps Webber's movie alive is the tenseness of the setup ... and, above all, the presence of Johansson. She is often wordless and close to plain onscreen, but wait for the ardor with which she can summon a closeup and bloom under its gaze; this is her film, not Vermeer's, all the way." Owen Gleiberman, for Entertainment Weekly, wrote of her "nearly silent performance", observing, "The interplay on her face of fear, ignorance, curiosity, and sex is intensely dramatic." She was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama and the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. She was also nominated by the London Film Critics' Circle, the Phoenix Film Critics Society and the British Independent Film Awards.
Johansson was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, in June 2004. In the same year, she voiced a role in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie and appeared in an adaptation of Oscar Wilde's Lady Windermere's Fan entitled A Good Woman, opposite Helen Hunt and Tom Wilkinson. It received a limited U.S. release, and was both a box office and critical failure. It was described by the New York Times as a "misbegotten Hollywood-minded screen adaptation" with "an excruciating divide between the film's British actors (led by Tom Wilkinson and Stephen Campbell Moore), who are comfortable delivering Wilde's aphorisms ... and its American marquee names, Helen Hunt and Scarlett Johansson, [who have] little connection to the English language as spoken in the high Wildean style." She also appeared in the critically panned, teen, heist film The Perfect Score and in In Good Company, in a supporting role opposite Topher Grace and Dennis Quaid. Her performance in the dark, Southern drama, A Love Song for Bobby Long, earned her a third Golden Globe for Best Actress nomination. Johansson was involved for a short time with the film Mission: Impossible III, but was not officially cast because of scheduling conflicts, although a falling out with the film's star, Tom Cruise, was reported.
Scarlett Johansson Biography
2005–07
In July 2005, Johansson starred, with Ewan McGregor, in Michael Bay's science fiction film, The Island, in dual roles as Sarah Jordan and her clone, Jordan Two Delta. The film was a commercial failure and received mixed critical reviews. In contrast, her role as Nola, the American actress with whom Chris (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is obsessed, in the Woody Allen-directed drama Match Point, was well-received. The New York Times said, "Ms. Johansson and Mr. Rhys-Meyers manage some of the best acting seen in a Woody Allen movie in a long time, escaping the archness and emotional disconnection that his writing often imposes." Mick LaSalle, writing in the San Francisco Chronicle, said, "[Johansson] is a powerhouse from the word go", and, "[Her performance] borders on astonishing." Johansson received her fourth Golden Globe nomination, and one from the Chicago Film Critics Association, for Best Supporting Actress.
In another collaboration with Allen, Johansson was cast opposite Hugh Jackman and Allen in the 2006 feature, Scoop. While the film enjoyed a modest worldwide box office success, it received mixed reviews by critics. The New York Times called the film "not especially funny yet oddly appealing" and cited parallels to The Thin Man, saying, "[while] Johansson is certainly no Myrna Loy, [her] performance is all over the place ... but finally works for a film that is itself all over the place. Mr. Allen seems happy to just watch her strut her stuff, and after a while so are we." New York magazine said, "Johansson doesn’t have the natural buoyancy to play a screwball Nancy Drew, [but] she’s smart enough to know what’s needed (a young Diane Keaton), and manages to rouse herself", while USA Today criticized "her delivery of Allenesque one-liners" as "clunky", and "sometimes, she seems in over her head playing opposite Allen." The same year, she appeared in Brian De Palma's The Black Dahlia, a film noir shot in Los Angeles and Bulgaria. Johansson later said she was a De Palma fan and had wanted to work with him on the film, even though she thought that she was "physically wrong" for the part. Her reviews were mixed. CNN.com noted, "[Johansson] takes to the pulpy period atmosphere as if it were oxygen," whereas the Kalamazoo Gazette referred to Johansson as "miscast".
Johansson next had a supporting role in the Christopher Nolan thriller The Prestige (2006), again opposite Hugh Jackman, as well as Christian Bale. Nolan, who described Johansson as possessing an "ambiguity... a shielded quality", said he was "very keen" for her to play the role. Johansson said, "[she] loved working with [Nolan]", and he was "incredibly focused and driven and involved, and really involved in the performance in every aspect." The film was both a critical and a worldwide box office success, recommended by the Los Angeles Times as "an adult, provocative piece of work." Also in 2006, Johansson starred in a short film directed by Bennett Miller and set to Bob Dylan's "When the Deal Goes Down...", released to promote Dylan's album, Modern Times.
Johansson starred in 2007's The Nanny Diaries, alongside Laura Linney. The film performed only marginally well at the box office, and was critically panned. Johansson's reviews were mixed, with Variety saying, "[She] essays an engaging heroine", while The New Yorker criticized her for looking "merely confused" while "trying to give the material a plausible emotional center". In his review for the San Francisco Chronicle, Mick LaSalle said, "There's something painful about watching Scarlett Johansson, who looks as if she never had an indecisive moment in her life, struggle to seem ineffectual."
Personal life
Johansson rarely discusses her personal life with the press, saying, "It's nice to have everybody not know your business."
She started dating Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds in 2007, and on May 5, 2008, it was reported that the two were engaged. On September 27, 2008, Johansson and Reynolds were married at a quiet ceremony near Tofino, British Columbia. They purchased a $2.8 million home together near Los Angeles, California. On December 14, 2010, Reynolds and Johansson announced that they had separated. Reynolds filed for divorce on December 23, 2010 in Los Angeles, citing irreconcilable differences. Johansson filed her divorce response simultaneously. The divorce was finalized on July 1, 2011.
She celebrates a "little of both" Christmas and Hanukkah, and has described herself as Jewish.
On September 14, 2011, the FBI announced it was investigating the alleged hacking of Johansson's cell phone and the dissemination of nude photographs. In the December 2011 issue of Vanity Fair, Johansson stated that the photos were sent to her then-husband Ryan Reynolds three years prior to the incident, adding: "There's nothing wrong with that. It's not like I was shooting a porno [...] Although there's nothing wrong with that either." She later also expressed that the photo leak "was really terrible; I felt absolutely violated. I wasn't really aware of how vulnerable all of us are, but I think everybody is just discovering that now..."
Johansson rejects the "ScarJo" nickname some have used in reference to her, calling it "awful".
