Posing seduction Girl With A Pearl Earring (2003)
Never has 17th century painting been sexier.
As the shy, restrained maid Griet becomes enamoured with painter Johannes Vermeer (Colin Firth), the sexual tension between the pair rises to unbearable levels.
And then, as Vermeer comes to paint the eponymous portrait, he lightly positions her head, rubbing his thumb along her lip and essentially seducing her with posing tips.
Johansson meanwhile perfectly portrays repressed intimacy while still managing to exactly recreate the famous painting’s original pose.
Saturday Night Live
It's fair to say that ScarJo's appearances hosting Saturday Night Live have received a mixed response, but when the skits are as good as her performances in them, she manages to hit comedy gold.
She has contributed to plenty of great sketches in the show during her three times as host and her occasional cameos, but her best character has to be Lexi, the gaudy daughter helping her father hawk tacky home items.
Kissing in the rain - Match Point (2005)
Kissing in the rain has become a clichéd staple of film romance and few films do it well, but Woody Allen succeeded with this powerful, steamy scene.
Of course, it helps that stars Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Rhys Meyers don't just stop at kissing, but take a tumble in the soaking grass to writhe and fumble in a surprisingly sexy and passionate embrace.
Is it raining? We hadn't noticed.
Winning a Tony
Proving that she's not just a Hollywood pretty face, Johansson won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play in 2010 after making her Broadway debut in Arthur Miller's A View From The Bridge .
She said of the win: "Being welcomed into this community has been a dream come true for me. Ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to be on Broadway, and here I am."
Dolce & Gabbana
Despite being a brand started by two people – Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana – and having over 3,000 employees, Dolce & Gabbana don’t have a face between them. Which is why, in 2009, they hired Scarlett Johansson to be that face.
She has appeared in many whimsical advertising campaigns, some more nonsensical than others, for their cosmetics and fragrances, but has always appeared utterly charming, gorgeous and more than a little happy to be the A-list representative for one of the highest class labels in the fashion industry.
We bet she gets paid in amazing dresses and jewellery.
"I dont need to be skinny to be sexy"
At a time of fad diets and size zero magazine covers, it’s always refreshing when an actress decides to take a stand against this culture and celebrate having a normal-sized, albeit curvaceous, figure.
Johansson says: “I try to stay fit and eat healthily, but I am not anxious to starve myself and become unnaturally thin.
I don't find that look attractive on women and I don't want to become part of that trend. It's unhealthy and it puts too much pressure on women in general who are being fed this image of the ideal, which it is not.”
Bravo. Also massive bravo for this: “I still eat a burger at a counter with ketchup dripping down my face.”
2004 Golden Globe Awards
Despite already making a name for herself in Hollywood, it’s fair to say that 2003 was really Johansson’s year.
She was skyrocketed to stardom with star turns in both Lost In Translation and Girl With A Pearl Earring , both for which she was awarded with Golden Globe nominations.
And so, of course, with two awards in the offing (neither of which she won, unfortunately), the new, young starlet wore a show-stopping, unforgettable dress on the red carpet which helped to truly cement her new celebrity status.
Tricking Loki Avengers Assemble (2012)
What’s cooler than tricking a trickster?
Proving that Black Widow isn’t all about high-kicking somersaults and skin-tight trousers, her greatest character moment comes when she manipulates villainous demi-god Loki into revealing his plan.
It’s a classic Whedon moment that shows the apparently shaken Agent Romanoff, perturbed by Loki’s nerve-touching threats, to have been in control of the conversation the entire time.
And the clever switcheroo from teary “mewling quim” to efficient spy retrieving key intel is pulled off brilliantly by Johansson.
The press conference double standard response
It’s amazing that one journalist at the Avengers press conference in London can manage to perfectly highlight the difference between how actors and actresses are perceived in the media with just two questions.
He asked: "I have a question for Robert and Scarlett. Firstly, Robert, in Iron Man 1 and Iron Man 2, Tony Stark started off as a very egotistical character but now learns how to fight as a team, so how did you approach this role bearing in mind the kind of maturity of the human being in the Tony Stark character and did you learn anything throughout the movies that you make?
"And to Scarlett, for getting into the shape of Black Widow, did you have anything special to count as a diet, any specific food or that kind of thing?"
As Robert Downey Jr neatly sidestepped his question, Scarlett Johansson rightly pointed out the double standard: “How come you get the really interesting existential question and I get the rabbit food question?"
Karaoke love Lost In Translation (2003)
There are so many wonderful moments in Sofia Coppola’s Lost In Translation , but this sultry singing scene is arguably the most important.
Flitting between cheeky fun and heartfelt longing, Johansson’s neglected wife Charlotte starts with an amused rendition of Brass In Pocket before turning more serious with I’m Special , conveying meaning in the lyrics directly to Bill Murray’s Bob.
And it doesn’t stop there – when it’s Bob’s turn to sing, Charlotte looks on, smiling at times but otherwise pondering weighty consequences.
Never has an actress had to convey so much emotion in front of novelty singing equipment.
Now you've over-indulged in Johansson-y goodness, why not bolster the ScarJo-appreciation with our exclusive interview with Don Jon 's director/star/writer Joseph Gordon-Levitt, as he raves about how much he brought to his ace comedy drama...
Don Jon is in UK cinemas from 15 November 2013.
