Natalie Portman admits she suffered a devastating break-up when she was 25.
The 33-year-old actress, who has three-year-old son Aleph with husband Benjamin Millepied, says the "big heartbreak" in her life took place while she was starring in the Broadway production 'The Seagull' in New York City in 2001, and credits the late director Mike Nichols for helping her to heal.
The brunette beauty, who dated Hayden Christensen in 2000 and Moby in 2001, said: "When I was 25, I had my heart broken - the rupture of my adolescence, the big heartbreak. I was at his [Mike's] apartment on the floor, and he picked me up and gave me a pep talk and sent me to a doctor and straightened me out - literally peeled me off the floor."
The Oscar winner also credits Mike for saving her career after she appeared in 'Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace' in 1999.
In a tribute piece to the director, who died last month, she told New York Magazine: "Star Wars had come out around the time of 'Seagull,' and everyone thought I was a horrible actress. 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,'"
"And then Anthony passed me on to Tom Tykwer, who passed me on to the ['V for Vendetta' directors] Wachowskis."
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