To fans all over the world she is known as Natalie Portman, in reality her name is Herslag and an actress of Israeli origin, born in 1981 in Jerusalem, but naturalized American, a country where she has lived since the age of 3. After her studies she was about to take her first steps as a model, but immediately in 1994 she was offered the part of the protagonist of what is one of the most important Luc Besson films: Léon.
Natalie Portman then goes on filming while continuing her education. She is a serious and diligent student who speaks French, Japanese, English and Hebrew. She followed a course in psychology at Harvard when she was already a famous actress.
In theater and cinema, Natalie Portman distinguished herself in her dramatic performances. She also participated in major commercial successes such as parts I, II and III of the Star Wars saga from 1999.
Table of Contents
The origins
An only child, Natalie Portman was born in Jerusalem on 9 June 1981 by Avner Hershlag, a specialist in fertility of Polish and Romanian origin, and by Shelley Stevens, American housewife from Cincinnati, who will later serve as her agent. Her father named her “Natalie” in honor of the song of the same name by the French singer and composer Gilbert Bécaud. At the age of three he moved with his family to Washington and then to Syosset, a center of 12,000 inhabitants on Long Island (New York), where he settled permanently. She is also an fashion icon, as Princess Diana, Meghan Markel, Britney Spears and more.
Personal Life
She stated that her grandmother, to whom she is very attached, is a native of Romania. In the May 2002 edition of Vogue magazine, Natalie Portman defined actor and musician Lukas Haas and musician Moby as the people closest to her. From 2003 to 2004 and again in 2007 he dated Mexican actor Gael García Bernal. After participating in the video for her song “Carmensita”, she began a relationship with folk singer Devendra Banhart, which ended in September 2008. She was a vegetarian for twenty years, later becoming vegan following reading the book If Nothing Matters by Jonathan Safran Foer. He is fluent in Hebrew and English, he knows French, German, Japanese and has been studying Arabic for some years. Natalie Portman is one of the smartest women in Hollywood: she has an IQ of 140.
In late 2009, on the set of The Black Swan, he met the dancer and choreographer Benjamin Millepied. In December 2010, Portman confirmed their engagement and pregnancy. The couple then had a son, Aleph, who was born on June 14, 2011. The two were married on August 4, 2012, in a Jewish ceremony in Big Sur, California. On February 22, 2017, the second daughter Amalia was born.
Career
The beginnings
She began studying dance at the age of seven. He began his career as a model, but in 1994 she was offered a leading role in the film Léon by Luc Besson. That film will bring her other acting jobs (which she will do during the summer, so as not to give up on school and university). The films she appears in during this period are Michael Mann’s Heat (1995), with Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, Woody Allen’s Everyone Says I Love You (1996) , with Edward Norton and Drew Barrymore, and Mars Attacks! (1996) by Tim Burton, with Jack Nicholson and Glenn Close.
She is an actress attentive to the choice of the parts she plays, for this reason she rejected some roles such as Wendy in Ang Lee ‘s Ice Storm (1997) (later entrusted to Christina Ricci) and Lolita in Adrian’s Lolita (1997) Lyne. She also refused to take part in William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet (1997) by Baz Luhrmann, as he felt the film’s sex scenes were too strong for a girl her age.
Studies and theater
For almost three years she no longer appears in any film, deciding to devote herself fully to study and theater. In 1998 she worked on the play The Diary of Anne Frank and therefore rejected a part in Robert Redford’s The Man Who Whispered Horses (1998) ; on the other hand, thanks to the play, she earns a nomination for the Tony Awards. After finishing school, she enrolled at Harvard University to study psychology and acting at the Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Camp.
The great success
She reentered the world of cinema playing Queen Amidala in George Lucas’ Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999), for which she achieved immediate success and, in the same year, received the lead part in My Adorable Enemy ( 1999) by Wayne Wang, in which she stars opposite Susan Sarandon. Before filming My Lovely Enemy, the director asked her to play a sex scene but she refused, threatening to leave. It was the intervention of Susan Sarandon, who also threatened to leave, that made the director change his mind. In 2000 she starred in the film Where the Heart Beats directed by Matt Williams with Ashley Judd, Stockard Channing and James Frain, in which he plays the role of Novalee; the following year he participated with a cameo in Zoolander of Ben Stiller.
In 2002 she continues with Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones in which she plays Senator Amidala and in 2003 she graduated in psychology after appearing in Cold Mountain. In the same year she was elected ambassador for children for the UN. She continues to be successful by appearing in several high-profile films, movies which became one of the best movies of all time, such as Zach Braff’s My Life in Garden State (2004) and Closer (2004), alongside Jude Law, Clive Owen and Julia Roberts, for which he earns a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination.
Concludes the George Lucas saga with Star Wars Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005). Her last work was V for Vendetta of James McTeigue, based on the popular comic by Alan Moore, and Goya’s Ghosts, starring Javier Bardem, in which she plays the muse of Spanish painter Francisco Goya. In the same year she played the part of an Israeli girl fleeing Jerusalem in the independent film Free Zone, directed by director Amos Gitai, in competition at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival, in the Cinema dal Mondo section. In 2007 she plays, with Jason Schwartzman, Hotel Chevalier, a 12-minute prologue to Wes Anderson’s The Train to Darjeeling. In Hotel Chevalier she appears for the first time on the screen without veils.
In 2008 he participated in the fantasy comedy Mr. Magorium and the shop of wonders, opposite Dustin Hoffman, in A romantic kiss – My Blueberry Nights by Wong Kar-wai, and in The other woman of the king, a film based on the novel by Philippa Gregory and presented at the Berlin Film Festival, in which she plays the role of Anna Bolena. In May 2008 she was invited to the 61st edition of the Cannes Film Festival, this time as second member of the jury, together with Sean Penn. She is also part of the all-star cast of the short series New York, I Love You, released in the United States in 2009, which also features, among others, his former Star Wars set partner, Hayden Christensen. In addition to acting in New York, I Love You, she directed and wrote one of the shorts; it should be noted that the Israeli actress also directed another short, Eve, which was presented at the Venice Film Festival in 2008. In December 2009 she is in the cast of Brothers, by Jim Sheridan, alongside Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal.
Political and social causes
Natalie Portman, a staunch advocate for animal rights, has been a vegetarian since childhood. In 2009, after reading the book Eating Animals (Eating animals) by Jonathan Safran Foer, she became vegan. She does not eat animal meat or derivatives, nor does he wear leather, feathers, wool or fur clothes. “All my shoes are made by Target or Stella McCartney.” In 2007 he launched his own shoe brand vegan.
Also in 2007 she traveled to Rwanda with Jack Hanna for the filming of the documentary Gorillas on the Bring. Some time later, at a naming ceremony (a sort of secular baptism), Natalie baptized a gorilla giving it the name “Gukina”, which means “to play”. She has been an avid environmentalist since childhood, when she joined the “World Patrol Kids”, a theater company made up of environmentalists. She is also a member of the One Voice movement.
It also supports activities against world hunger and poverty. Between 2004 and 2005 she traveled to Uganda, Guatemala and Ecuador as an Ambassador of Hope for FINCA International, an organization that promotes micro-credit to help companies owned by women in developing countries. In an interview conducted backstage at the concert Live 8 in Philadelphia and in the appearance to the program Foreign Exchange the PBS has discussed microfinance. Conductor Fareed Zakaria claimed to be “generally wary of celebrities supporting fashion causes,” but included the part with Portman because the actress “knows what she’s talking about.”
In the “Voices” section of the April 29, 2007 episode of ABC’s “This Week” program, Natalie talked about her work with FINCA and how she helps women and children in Third World countries. In the fall of 2007, she visited many universities, including Harvard, the University of Southern California, the University of California at Los Angeles, Berkeley, Stanford, Princeton, New York University and Columbia, to inspire students to the philosophy of microfinance and to encourage them to join FINCA’s Village Banking Campaign to help families and communities out of poverty.
Filmography
●Léon, directed by Luc Besson (1994)
●Heat – The Challenge ( Heat ), directed by Michael Mann (1995)
●Beautiful Girls, by Ted Demme (1996)
●Everyone Says I Love You ( Everyone Says I Love You ), directed by Woody Allen (1996)
●Mars Attacks!, directed by Tim Burton (1996)
●Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, directed by George Lucas (1999)
●My Adorable Enemy ( Anywhere but Here), directed by Wayne Wang (1999)
●Where the Heart Is ( Where the Heart Is ), directed by Matt Williams (2000)
●Zoolander, directed by Ben Stiller (2001) – cameo
●Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, directed by George Lucas (2002)
●Cold Mountain ( Cold Mountain ), directed by Anthony Minghella (2003)
●My Life in Garden State ( Garden State ), directed by Zach Braff (2004)
●Closer, by Mike Nichols (2004)
●Free Zone, directed by Amos Gitai (2005)
●Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, directed by George Lucas (2005)
●V for Vendetta ( V for Vendetta ), directed by James McTeigue (2005)
●Domino One, by Nick Louvel (2005)
●Faubourg Saint-Denis (10th arrondissement), episode of Paris, je t’aime, directed by Tom Tykwer (2005)
●Goya’s Ghosts ( Goya’s Ghosts ), directed by Miloš Forman (2006)
●A Romantic Kiss – My Blueberry Nights ( My Blueberry Nights ), directed by Wong Kar-wai (2007)
●The Darjeeling Train ( The Darjeeling Limited ), directed by Wes Anderson (2007) – cameo
●Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium ( Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium ), directed by Zach Helm (2007)
●L’altra donna del re ( The Other Boleyn Girl ), directed by Justin Chadwick (2008)
●Love and Other Impossible ( Love and Other Impossible Pursuits ), directed by Don Roos (2009)
●Brothers, by Jim Sheridan (2009)
●Mira Nair, New York episode, I Love You, directed by Mira Nair (2009)
●Black Swan ( Black Swan ), directed by Darren Aronofsky (2010)
●Joaquin Phoenix – I’m here! ( I’m Still Here ), by Casey Affleck (2010)
●Hesher Been Here ( Hesher ), directed by Spencer Susser (2010)
●His Majesty ( Your Highness ), directed by David Gordon Green (2011)
●Friends, lovers and … ( No Strings Attached ), directed by Ivan Reitman (2011)
●Thor, by Kenneth Branagh (2011)
●Thor: The Dark World, directed by Alan Taylor (2013)
●Knight of Cups, directed by Terrence Malick (2015)
●Dreaming is Living ( A Tale of Love and Darkness ), directed by Natalie Portman (2015)
●Inglourious insensitive ( The Heyday of the Insensitive Bastards ), various filmmakers (2015)
●Jane Got a Gun, directed by Gavin O’Connor (2016)
●Jackie, by Pablo Larraín (2016)
●Planetarium, directed by Rebecca Zlotowski (2016)
●Song to Song, directed by Terrence Malick (2017)
●Annihilation ( Annihilation ), directed by Alex Garland (2018)
●Vox Lux, directed by Brady Corbet (2018)
●La mia vita con John F. Donovan ( The Death and Life of John F. Donovan ), directed by Xavier Dolan (2018)
●Lucy in the Sky, directed by Noah Hawley (2019)
●Avengers: Endgame, directed by Anthony and Joe Russo (2019) – cameo
●Thor: Love and Thunder, by Taika Waititi (2022)
Natalie Portman Height
Natalie Portman is petite. The Israeli actress is not exactly a big woman: in fact, she is 160 centimeters tall. But you know, good wine comes in small casks and Portman has always demonstrated the extent and quality of her talent.
Natalie Portman: Star Wars
The Star Wars period was one of the darkest for Natalie Portman. The actress has revealed that the worst period of her career dates back to when she began to be part of the second Star Wars trilogy: no one trusted her, except Mike Nichols. In short, Star Wars was in theaters and “everyone was starting to think I was a bad actress. I was one of the top grossing performers of the decade and no director wanted to work with me. Mike wrote a letter to Anthony Minghella and said “Put it in Cold Mountain, I vouch for her.” And then Anthony put in a good word with Tom Tykwer, who spread the word with the Wachowskis ”.
10 Things You Didn’t Know About Natalie Portman
Here are 10 little things – necessarily must-haves – that you might not have known about her.
1. Natalie Portman was born in 1981 in Jerusalem, Israel, to a gynecologist-obstetrician dad specializing in fertility issues and a housewife mom (who would also become her agent). The family moved to the United States when she was 3 years old. Her real name is Hershlag and she took her maternal grandmother’s maiden name for a career.
2. Natalie was spotted by a talented Revlon scout when she was 10, ordering pizza with her mom at a restaurant on Long Island.
3. In the early 90s, Natalie Portman was one of the liners for the heroine of the musical titled Ruthless! and performed off-Broadway. The other lining? Britney Spears! They are still friends.
4. Natalie Portman was 12 when she starred in Leon, her first movie. However, she almost did not land the role because the casting director found her too young. At the same time, Liv Tyler, also approached to play Mathilda, was dismissed because she was too old. She was 15!
5. Bright young woman (she says she doesn’t like “studying” but “learning”), in 2003, she graduated from Harvard in psychology. When it was rumored that she was enrolled in this prestigious university, the nine Natalie on campus were inundated with emails from enamored fans of the actress. The girls concerned then had the idea of creating a group to discuss the poems and other marriage proposals received. And laugh about it.
6. During her college years, Natalie dated a member of the Porcellian Club (that ultra-select circle that Mark Zuckerberg would have loved to join). And she did not hesitate to tell a few little anecdotes to Aaron Sorkin, the screenwriter of The Social Network. Who said thank you.
7. Natalie Portman has been a staunch vegetarian since she was 8 years old. In 2002, La Peta voted her “Sexiest Vegetarian” and in 2008, the actress released a line of “vegan” (ie leather-free) shoes in collaboration with Te Casan. Who has not met with success. No problem, she wears those from the Beyond skin brand.
8. Musicians like Natalie very much. The groups Ozma and Team Sleep wrote a song in her name. DJ Intel One has released a compilation called Love: A Tribute to Natalie Portman. There was also the Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head who were named so when the actress had shaved her head for the needs of the film V as Vendetta. In 2010, they changed their name and are now called Brite Futures.
9. Man Who Whispers in Horses’ Ears ): “I dream of taking her breasts in my hands! She has some really beautiful ones. “
10. It was Natalie Portman who suggested to Darren Aronofsky that his friend Mila Kunis play Lily in Black Swan. Who, like her, has a past as a dancer. Mila got the role without going audition.
