Named “the Sexiest Woman Alive” by Esquire magazine in 2006, actress Scarlett Johansson (1984–), along with her twin brother Hunter, was born on this day in New York City.

“I can take care of myself,” she once said. “I’m from New York.”

Of Danish and Polish ancestry, she studied acting as a child and debuted at age eight in the off-Broadway play Sophistry. Her first film role was 1994’s North. From the beginning, she worked steadily and the camera loved her.

Critics took notice. In 1998, she gained worldwide recognition with her performance in The Horse Whisperer (with Robert Redford). Reflecting on the experience, she shared, “Acting, at its heart, is the ability to manipulate your own emotions.”

After losing a role in The Parent Trap (1998) to Lindsay Lohan, Johansson was cast in Lost in Translation, playing Charlotte, the unforgettable young woman at the center of an aging actor’s quiet longing (2003, with Bill Murray). Rolling Stone critic Peter Travers celebrated her “smashing loveliness and subtle grace.”

“Being a movie star is a quality that somebody sort of embodies, and being a celebrity is something that people recognize in you. I just hope to make good movies,” she said.

In recent years, she has continued to choose roles that ask for honesty rather than spectacle, allowing her work to mature with a quiet, unwavering grace.

“I feel like right now I have a one-in-a-million chance... It’s luck. I’m just lucky.”