She remembers a childhood filled with "very normal things"-a family life and a regular school, but at the age of 8, debuted in Playwrights Horizon's production of Sophistry, with Ethan Hawke, and appeared in a TV skit on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Her father, Danish-born architect Karsten Johansson and Bronx-born Polish mom, Melanie Johansson, now her manager, separated when she was 13, and later on divorced.

Johansson is three minutes older than her twin brother, Hunter ("the most important three minutes in my life"). She also has an older sister, actress Vanessa Johannsson; an older brother, Adrian; and an older half-brother, Christian.

In 1998, Johansson received critical acclaim as the young girl traumatized in a riding accident in The Horse Whisperer, with Robert Redford. It was her seventh feature film.

Johansson graduated in 2002 from the Professional Children's School in Manhattan, and according to FOXNews.com, she was rejected the next year by The Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. The magnitude of her talent was clearly "lost in translation," because that same year, her career literally exploded-with the commercial success of Sophia Coppola's indie film, Lost in Translation, playing an isolated young wife in a Tokyo hotel, who bonds with a visiting American actor, played by Bill Murray. To prepare for the role, which earned her a Golden Globe nomination and a Best Actress award from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), Johannson lived on Hokkaido for a while with then-boyfriend Faiz Ahmad.

That same year, Johansson earned a second Golden Globe nomination for her mesmerizing role as the young servant girl, Griet (in Girl with a Pearl Earring), who inspired Vermeer to paint his masterpiece of the same name.

In 2004, Johansson earned a third Golden Globe nomination for her role in her pet project, A Love Song for Bobby Long, opposite John Travolta (cast as an alcoholic). She revealed substance, as well as style, in her portrayal of the trusting newlywed in A Good Woman (2004), based on an Oscar Wilde play set in the 30s, and that same year, was cast as Dennis Quaid's daughter in the film, In Good Company.

Johansson has learned, the hard way, to keep her luscious lips closed on the topic of personal relationships. "It always ends up kicking you in the face," she said. Her relationship, with Benicio Del Torro, 17 years her senior, was surrounded by salacious tabloid rumors of steamy elevator sex (which Johansson denied). "A serial monogamist," she has said that after months of being single, she just may be ready to settle down, again. "I'm just waiting for fate to bring me and my future love together.

This past December, when Johansson promoted Match Point, current boyfriend Josh Hartnett, 27, one of her hot cop co-stars in Brian De Palma's soon-to-be released Black Dahlia, was by her side.

Johansson believes that actors have a tougher time staying faithful, because they're moody and often away on location, "rolling around in bed with a really sexy [actor] in a really sexy movie." She admitted, "Sometimes, you get really overwhelmed by your emotions when you're working, and it's hard to differentiate how you feel in real life in that moment. You're constantly thinking in somebody else's head." She has also said, "I don't think human beings are monogamous by nature."

One of Johansson's distinguishing characteristics is her Marlo Thomas-like raspy voice, perhaps the result of a long-term tonsil problem recently resolved with a tonsillectomy. "I'm so tired of casting directors who ask if I have a sore throat," she has said. "The people who have told me that my voice is distinctive … have always been close to my heart." Children may recognize her voice as that of Princess Mindy in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004).

Johansson, who says she most respects "naturalness and authenticity," admits she has an obsessive character, "I manicure my nails at three in the morning because nobody can do it the right way. Maybe that's the secret to my success."

Although just two years past her teens, Johansson is already feeling the pressure in Hollywood to be perfect.

"You constantly feel like you're not skinny enough," she said, and admits that she already uses anti-aging products on her skin. "Los Angeles can be very, very lonely, and it can eat you up if you don't take care of yourself."

Johansson's mother, Melanie, has so far kept her daughter's head "above the crowd" and her persona "below the radar." Said Johansson, "I am very independent. I can look after myself, but I still need a lot of love and care."

Together, both mother and daughter have made Hollywood waves with incidents of "high-handedness" and withdrawals from projects. Johansson recently pulled out of Thumbsucker (to do Match Point) and the upcoming Mission Impossible III, after an alleged falling out with star Tom Cruise over his comments to Brooke Shields on post-partum depression treatment. After pulling out of a movie on Napoleon with producer Howard Rosenman and Al Pacino, Johansson and her mother are now producing their own film, Napoleon and Betsy (she plays a young English girl who attracts the exiled French general).

Johansson has been seen everywhere-in 2004, between the sheets with Trent Ford for a new campaign for the Calvin Klein fragrance, Eternity Moment, and as the seductress in a Louis Vuitton ad campaign." I guess you have to decide where you draw the line between saying, 'This is fun, pretty and fabulous, and being over-exposed," Johansson admitted.

In February, she became "the face" of RED, Bono's new global partnership with AMEX, Armani, Gap, and Converse, selling products to "conscience consumers" to raise funds to fight HIV, TB, and malaria in developing countries (à la Angelina Jolie?).

Johansson has completed the London filming of Scoop, a second Woody Allen film, this one a comedy in which he also acts. She plays an American investigative journalist opposite British aristocrat Hugh Jackman, and is currently filming The Prestige, also with Jackman, about the deadly rivalry between two magicians. Johansson will soon star in Amazon as a 200 B.C. warrior, a project conceived by her and produced by her mother. "I'm a very passionate person, a very sensual person, and I think it's wonderful to celebrate that … in your prime," she has said.

Johansson will also soon star as the sibling of Colin Farrell in the 15th-century Roman political epic, Borgia, and in the adaptation of the commercially successful book, The Nanny Diaries. "You put a little piece of yourself into every character that you do, even if you're playing a psychotic person," she said. "Some part of you is in that character and it's hopefully believable."

Johansson's goal is to continue to make good movies. "I love everything about the process of making films: the rehearsing and performing, and the messages you can convey." She says she'd one day like to direct, and when she decides she would like to have children with somebody, "it would be nice to be married."

"It just so happens that by doing incredibly good work, she's become famous, not the other way around," summed up In Good Company writer/director Paul Weitz.

Incendiary. Intriguing. Scarlett Fever is not likely to cool anytime soon.