Natalie Portman: Everyone thought I was a terrible actress after Star Wars
Natalie Portman managed to transition rather well from child star to legitimate adult actress. I’ve always thought the big change Portman made in how she was perceived was when she did Closer in 2004, with Clive Owen, Jude Law and Julia Roberts. Natalie scored an Oscar nomination for her role as the stripper Jane, and after that, people saw her as adult AND a “real actress.” She was directed by Mike Nichols in Closer, and he had already worked with her on a stage production of The Seagull. So, when Natalie was speaking about Nichols’ death, she gave him credit for “vouching” for her skills as an actress, especially after the wake of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.
The force of the second Star Wars trilogy was not strong for Natalie Portman career-wise, according to the Oscar-winning actress, one of the most popular in the world.
The 33-year-old played Padme / Queen Amidala, love interest of Anakin Skywalker, who later became Darth Vader, in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. The films were released between 1999 and 2005 and served as prequels to the original series. While the newer movies made more than $2.5 billion worldwide, critics and scores of fans of the franchise were not as impressed with them.
Portman, a former child star, began her onscreen career more than five years before her Star Wars debut. In the summer of 2001, Portman also appeared with Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman in an adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s 19th century play The Seagull in New York City. Mike Nichols was the director and would go on to helm the 2004 film The Closer, which garnered Portman her first Oscar nomination. He died in November at age 83. Portman recently spoke to New York Magazine about her late friend.
“Star Wars [Episode I – The Phantom Menace] had come out around the time of Seagull, and everyone thought I was a horrible actress,” the outlet quoted her as saying. “I was in the biggest-grossing movie of the decade, and no director wanted to work with me.”
“Mike wrote a letter to Anthony Minghella and said, ‘Put her in Cold Mountain, I vouch for her,'” she added.
Portman starred in the director’s 2003 historical drama, which garnered fellow supporting actress Renee Zellweger her first Oscar. In 2005, the actress appeared in V For Vendetta, a political thriller that made $132 million worldwide and was penned by screenwriter siblings Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski. Portman shaved her head for the film, marking the first out of two times she would transform her look for a movie.
“…Everyone thought I was a horrible actress…” She says that like it’s untrue. I mean, Natalie is a decent-to-good actress, but let’s not pretend that Star Wars was her greatest acting triumph, you know? People didn’t want to work with her legitimately, because they didn’t know if she was going to be able to pull it off. But it’s nice that Nichols vouched for her and talked her up to other directors. Nichols was such a mensch.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.
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