Scarlett Johansson Is Esquire's Sexiest, But How's The Acting Career?

Scarlett Johansson has been named Esquire's Sexiest Woman Alive for the second time, seven years after her first win.

The actress, 28, joins Mila Kunis, Rihanna, Halle Berry, Minka Kelly, Kate Beckinsale, Charlize Theron and Jessica Biel as Hollywood stars who have scooped the prize since its inception in 2005, then as part of Esquire's Women We Love issues.

In conversation with the magazine about becoming the only woman to win World's Sexiest on two separate occasions, Johansson explained, "You know, I gotta hustle. I'm a twenty-eight-year-old woman in the movie business, right?" she says. "Pretty soon the roles you're offered all become mothers. Then they just sort of stop. I have to hedge against that with work-theater, producing, this thing with Esquire."

Johansson - who also won Playboy Magazine's Sexiest Celebrity in 2007 and GQ's Babe of the Year in 2010 - rose to prominence playing the cynical social outcast Sarah in Ghost World (2001).

She turned in arguably her best performance in Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation (2003), though earned plaudits for Woody Allen's Match Point (2005), The Black Dahlia (2006) and Vicky Christina Barcelona (2008).

In recent years, Johansson has seamlessly slipped into more mainstream roles, notably as The Black Widow in Iron Man 2 and The Avengers. Talk of a Marvel movie spin-off is rife.

She returns as the same character in her next movie, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, though most critics are anticipating her performance in Jon Favreau's Chef, about a foodie who loses his restaurant job and starts up a food truck in an effort to reclaim his creative promise. That movie stars Robert Downey Jr in the lead, with support from Dustin Hoffman, John Leguizamo, Sofia Vergara and Johansson.

Watch Scarlett Johansson in the Under the Skin trailer:

After that, we'll next see the New Yorker in Luc Besson's Lucy, with Morgan Freeman and Min-Sik Choi. Johansson plays a drug mule who gains powers including clairvoyance, telekinesis and the ability to block out emotion and pain after a drug she is supposed to be transporting accidentally enters her system. Sounds frankly ridiculous and given Besson's recent form, Taken 2, The Transporter 2 and The Family, it's probably not one for the diaries.

The hugely anticipated sequel The Avengers: Age of Ultron will see Johansson plastered across billboards the world over, though it may be worth checking out Jonathan Glazer's Under the Skin to discover the actress's best work to date. In it she plays Laura, an alien seductress preying upon hitchhikers in Scotland. Yep. It's a real movie. It caused a stir at the film festivals with reviews ranging from zero star slaughterings to gentle admonishments and full marks love letters.

Scarlett Johansson At Comic Con 2013