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Natalie Portman: A different breed of film star
05 May 2007
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Ever since she arrived on the scene with an astonishing performance in 'Léon' aged just 12 Natalie Portman has had the knack of leaving those who encounter her enthralled.The distinctively featured actress has a tendency to induce a fascinated response akin to obsession. It is a presence which has beguiled audiences and directors alike and without which Portman would not have risen to where she is today. It has also been a source of grief for the 25-year-old.Portman's could so easily have been an all too familiar story of child stardom gone wrong. A less robust and thoughtful soul may not have been able to reconcile themselves to becoming what the actress recently termed a "paedophile magnet" when only just into their teens. Her role as a Lolita-esque orphan who befriends Jean Reno's hitman in 'Léon' brought much unwanted and often inappropriate attention which it was a feat of level-headedness to endure. The chastening experience of receiving explicit fan mail from adult fans, along with her academic, art house bent, led Portman away from the body exploitation inherent to young, stunning women starting out in Hollywood.When her second movie 'Beautiful Girls' called for nudity Portman headed for the exit, only to be persuaded to return when the offending sections of the script were cut.Unlike most young stars Portman was not being propelled by pushy parents eager for a bit of vicarious attention. She recalls their initial reaction to her foray into the movies as a worldly wise, "We know what happens to child actors, they end up in rehab".Unimpressed by what Hollywood had to offer, Portman's parents let her take film roles on the proviso that her school work would never suffer. The daughter of a serious-minded Israeli doctor and a well-to-do Jewish American housewife, she was never likely to live out the child-star nightmare of becoming a pre-teen crack addict bent on self-destruction.Despite possessing the looks of a Hollywood leading lady, there is something altogether more cerebral about Portman's approach to her trade. She once insisted that developing her mind was more important to her than developing her Hollywood career, and she proved as much when largely neglecting the Hollywood rat race to study psychology at Harvard for a four-year period from 1999. She refused to film anything but 'Star Wars' movies 'The Phantom Menace' (1999) and 'Attack of the Clones' (2002) whilst studying, despite the fact that her role as Princess Amidala in arguably the most anticipated films of all time made her ripe for ascent to A-list status.
After graduating with a degree in psychology Portman eschewed blockbusters for the likes of Zach Braff's independent 'Garden State', in which she played a charming, girl whose only flaw was her complete inability to tell the truth. Aside from being a compulsive fibber, her character also had a philosophy which compelled her to do things never done before, something which sits well with the actress's own approach to life.
It is a search for fresh experience which brings to mind Portman's insistence that she is "always trying to do stuff that's different all the time - something new and interesting for me that will hopefully be interesting for other people to watch".
It is a concept which appears to extend over into Portman's personal life. Asked recently if she has ever had a lesbian experience, she replied: "Why would you close yourself off from 50 per cent of people."
Portman's next film was a breakthrough in more ways than one. Stretching her acting talents with the role of Alice in both Mike Nichols' stage and film versions of 'Closer' (2004), Portman learnt to harness the provocative sexuality she had kept repressed. The role not only brought her to the attention of the Academy with an OSCAR nomination as Best Supporting Actress, it marked the fact that Portman had come to terms with her disturbing introduction to Hollywood a decade earlier, having previously admitted her early experiences made her "reluctant to do sexy stuff".
But Portman will only unleash her sexy side strictly on her own terms. Nude scenes in 'Closer' were cut when she persuaded Nochols they were incidental to plot and character.
Those disappointed by Portman's editorial decision will soon get the chance to see her in all her garmentless glory when 'Goya's Ghosts' hits cinema screens this month featuring scenes in which the actress is disrobed and brutally tortured. It may not be what 'Star Wars' fan boys had in mind, but it's wholly necessary to her portrayal of Spanish artist Francisco Goya's muse Inés, who is accused of being a heretic and hurled into jail.
Typically, Portman did not just rely on her imagination in order to portray a woman who descends into shaven-headed madness at the hands of her tormentors before being left to languish in a jail altogether less cushy than your average rehab clinic.
The actress insisted on contacting a professor she knew from her Harvard course, and set about learning everything she could about the psychological affect of being a woman in prison.
Portman's angular, alluring look is accentuated by the loss of her hair, and it was her startling appearance which won her the role. Acclaimed Czech director Miloš Forman claims he knew nothing of her previous acting work when casting the film, but picked her because she reminded him of the subject of a Goya painting. She was even pulled over by police whilst doing nothing more nefarious than driving innocently along the road. Their excuse? She "looked unusual".
Forman has declared himself mightily impressed with Portman's portrayal of the disturbed Inés, and he ought to know a thing or two about portraying madness - Forman's most well-known film is 1976 OSCAR winner 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'.
It seems Portman is eager to mix up her turns in critic-pleasing highbrow fare with sudden injections of out-and-out blockbuster. She took top billing for 'V for Vendetta', last year's adaptation of the politically provocative graphic novel, and was even rumoured to be reuniting with George Lucas on the long-awaited fourth 'Indiana Jones' movie. That's before you get to perhaps her greatest achievement to date - voicing a character in 'The Simpsons'.
Her personal life is also dichotomous. She cherishes her privacy, yet has reportedly risked attracting the paparazzi's lens by hooking up with the likes of Jake Gyllenhaal, Gael García Bernal, Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine and British billionaire's son Nat Rothschild.
Portman is all too aware of being seen as a "celebrity with a fashionable cause" but she nevertheless lends rare knowledge and intelligence to the tradition of movie star campaigning. She has worked to such good effect on her travels to Uganda, Guatemala, and Ecuador as the Ambassador of Hope for FINCA International, that she has impressed professionals with usually deep-seated cynicism towards Hollywood intervention. Add to that her ability to converse in French, German, Hebrew and Japanese (as well as just about get by in Arabic) and it is easy to see why shooting movies is not the be all and end all for the young star.
All-in-all, it is quite possible that such an accomplished young woman does not need Hollywood at all. And that's exactly the reason, you feel, why Hollywood definitely needs her.
By Robbie McIntyre.
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