Often a young actress will deliver a performance so strong, so mature she is feted as the Next Big Thing. But the description is usually used more in hope than expectation. We all know that many years and many films can pass before she'll live up to her early promise, if indeed she ever does. Early 2004, though, saw the arrival of a young talent who seemed near fully-formed, despite being still in her teens. As said, many youngsters break through with one outstanding performance, yet here was Scarlett Johansson, double-nominated at the Golden Globes and BAFTAs for the parts she played in Lost In Translation and Girl With A Pearl Earring. A double-nominee - this showed a consistent level of excellence ordinarily only reached by the likes of Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore and Holly Hunter. And this was an 18-year-old. Surely, there could this time be no doubt that this was the Next Big Thing.
Actually, close observers had been saying this about Johansson for some considerable time. Way back in 1996 she'd been nominated for an Independent Spirit award for Manny And Lo, then received worldwide plaudits for her part in Robert Redford's The Horse Whisperer. Striking roles in gritty teen flick Ghost World and the Coen brothers' The Man Who Wasn't There pushed her claim still further. Given that kind of CV, her 2004 burst-out seems less sensational than overdue.
She was born on the 22nd of November, 1984, in New York City. Her father, of Danish extraction, was a building contractor in Manhattan, while her mother, Melanie, looked after kids Adrian, Vanessa, Scarlett and Hunter, Hunter being Scarlett's twin, younger than her by three minutes ("the most important three minutes of my life", she's said). As Hunter would grow to 6' 3", with dark eyes and hair, Scarlett would later comment that they were as much like real twins as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito. There was also a half-brother, living with his mother in Denmark. Scarlett's name was, in a new family tradition, taken from Gone With The Wind, mother Melanie, of course, sharing the name of Scarlett O'Hara's friend and benefactor Melanie Hamilton.
