A major celebrity for more than half of her life, luminously beautiful native New Yorker Scarlett Johansson loves the fact that, in Manhattan, most people are too busy to notice her. “It’s hard for me to scrape out a private life, but it’s easier here, because everyone is going at their own quick pace,” says the 25-year-old international movie star. “The best moment is when I can forget I’m famous.” Still, she welcomes the powerful recognition she’s currently receiving from audiences eight times a week as she makes her Broadway debut in a revival of A View From the Bridge, Arthur Miller’s passionate drama in which she plays Catherine, the 17-year-old object of her uncle Eddie’s obsession, opposite Liev Schreiber. “The only thing on my mind right now is this show,” confides the actress, her husky speaking voice devoid of any local accent. “It’s an adventure and a challenge.”

In truth, Johansson has been preparing for this challenge since childhood. When she was only 7 years old, her parents—Danish architect Karsten Johansson and Bronx-born Melanie Sloan, who is now her manager—granted their daughter’s request for singing and dancing lessons by enrolling her in the prestigious Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute and, later, the Professional Children’s School. “I liked Rodgers and Hammerstein, Gershwin and Cole Porter,” she notes. At 8, she had a small role in an Off-Broadway play, Sophistry, with Ethan Hawke, and a part in Rob Reiner’s film North (1994). Then came The Horse Whisperer (1998), The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001), An American Rhapsody (2001) and Ghost World (2001), among many other films.

Meanwhile, her parents divorced when she was 13; she lived with her mom and twin brother, Hunter, and reveled in being a teenager in New York City, balancing career, homework and playtime. “I loved the American Museum of Natural History and South Street Seaport,” recalls Johansson. “I’d get dim sum in Chinatown, hang out in Washington Square Park, take the ferry to the Staten Island Zoo.” Growing up in this multicultural metropolis, she adds, “gives you a unique perspective and makes you worldly.”

Soon, Johansson hit the stratosphere playing a model for 17th-century painter Johannes Vermeer in Girl With a Pearl Earring (2003) and a newlywed adrift in contemporary Tokyo, opposite Bill Murray, in Lost in Translation (2003). Suddenly, the diminutive blonde was a hot property, in constant demand by movie directors including New York icon Woody Allen, who cast her in Match Point (2005), Scoop (2006) and Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), and Brian De Palma, who directed her in The Black Dahlia (2006). She was crowned the Sexiest Woman Alive by Esquire (2006), named one of People magazine’s Most Beautiful People (2007) and auctioned on eBay to a British fan, who donated more than $40,000 to charity for the privilege of being her guest at the Hollywood premiere of He’s Just Not That Into You (2009). She has designed a self-named line of sneakers and sportswear for Reebok and, more recently, she was featured in ad campaigns for Dolce & Gabbana and Moët & Chandon.

Johansson and her husband, actor Ryan Reynolds, who she married in 2008, divide their time between Los Angeles and their apartment on Manhattan’s East Side, which they share with two dogs. Her current favorite New York City attractions include The Frick Collection and Central Park. She dines at Friend of a Farmer, conducts lunch meetings at The Carlyle’s elegant tea room, The Gallery, and shops at Barneys New York. She and Reynolds celebrated her recent birthday (Nov. 22) at Griffin, the popular Meatpacking District nightspot, where they danced and lingered in a corner booth into the wee hours.

“I have no message to deliver. I try to make movies that I would pay to see. For me, it’s about the process of performing and filmmaking,” declares the actor, whose résumé includes a voice-over for The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004). She has also recorded two CDs—Anywhere I Lay My Head (2008) and Break Up (2009)—but says she has no plans to sing onstage. What’s next? She’ll grace movie screens as the villainous Black Widow in Iron Man 2 (scheduled for a May release). “I’d love to find a great, broad comedy, which is something that I haven’t done,” she adds. “I’d love to work with Clint Eastwood, Tim Burton and Martin Scorsese ... and my husband.” Still, she can’t complain. “I feel very fortunate to be employed doing something I love.”