page_title: Scarlett Johansson
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: Scarlett Johansson / Early life
caption_attribution_description: The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute at 115 East 15th Street between Union Square East and Irving Place in the Union Square neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City was founded by the noted acting teacher in 1969. The building dates from c.1930 (Sources: NYC GIS map and LSTFI website)
context_page_description: Scarlett Ingrid Johansson is an American actress and singer. The world's highest-paid actress since 2018, she has made multiple appearances in the Forbes Celebrity 100. Her films have grossed over $14.3 billion worldwide, making Johansson the ninth-highest-grossing box office star of all time. She is the recipient of several accolades, including a Tony Award and a BAFTA Award, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards and five Golden Globe Awards.
  Born and raised in Manhattan, New York City, Johansson aspired to be an actress from a young age and first appeared on stage in an Off-Broadway play as a child actor. She made her film debut in the fantasy comedy North, and gained early recognition for her roles in Manny & Lo, The Horse Whisperer, and Ghost World. Johansson shifted to adult roles in 2003 with her performances in Lost in Translation, which won her a BAFTA Award for Best Actress, and Girl with a Pearl Earring. She was nominated for Golden Globe Awards for these films, and for playing an estranged teenager in the drama A Love Song for Bobby Long, and a seductress in the psychological thriller Match Point.
context_section_description: Scarlett Ingrid Johansson was born in the New York City borough of Manhattan, on November 22, 1984. Her father, Karsten Olaf Johansson, is an architect originally from Copenhagen, Denmark, and her paternal grandfather, Ejner Johansson, was an art historian, screenwriter and film director, whose father was Swedish. Scarlett's mother, Melanie Sloan, a New Yorker, has worked as a producer. She comes from an Ashkenazi Jewish family from Poland and Russia, originally surnamed Schlamberg, and Scarlett has described herself as Jewish. She has an older sister, Vanessa, also an actress; an older brother, Adrian; and a twin brother, Hunter. Johansson also has an older half-brother, Christian, from her father's first marriage. She holds both American and Danish citizenship.
  Johansson attended PS 41, an elementary school in Greenwich Village, Manhattan. Her parents divorced when she was 13. Johansson was particularly close to her maternal grandmother, Dorothy Sloan, a bookkeeper and schoolteacher; they often spent time together and Johansson considered Sloan her best friend. Interested in a career in the spotlight from an early age, she often put on song-and-dance routines for her family. She was particularly fond of musical theater and jazz hands. She took lessons in tap dance, and states that her parents were supportive of her career choice. She describes her childhood as very ordinary.
  As a child, Johansson practiced acting by staring in the mirror until she made herself cry, wanting to be Judy Garland in Meet Me in St. Louis. At age seven, she was devastated when a talent agent signed one of her brothers instead of her, but she later decided to become an actress anyway. She enrolled at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, and began auditioning for commercials, but soon lost interest: "I didn't want to promote Wonder Bread." She shifted her focus to film and theater, making her first stage appearance in the Off-Broadway play Sophistry with Ethan Hawke, in which she had two lines. Around this time, she began studying at Professional Children's School (PCS), a private educational institution for aspiring child actors in Manhattan. At age nine, Johansson made her film debut as John Ritter's daughter in the fantasy comedy North (1994). She says that when she was on the film set, she knew intuitively what to do. Johansson later played minor roles including as the daughter of Sean Connery and Kate Capshaw's characters in the mystery thriller Just Cause (1995), and an art student in If Lucy Fell (1996).
caption: The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute, where Johansson learned to act as a child
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