At 40 years old, her prestige and recognition have shown that her decisions were correct, becoming one of the production companies' favorites.
Natalie Portman's versatility in every project she starred in places her in a prestigious place among artists of her generation. At 40 years old, her career has gone from teenage star to cult actress and star of million-dollar films like Star Wars.
Portman began her acting career at the age of 13, after being discovered by an agent in a pizzeria. That early debut could have been her biggest obstacle in an industry that, even today, hypers- teenagers don't know what roles to offer when they mature. "I started choosing scenes that were less because I was worried about how I was perceived and how safe I felt," she recalled in an interview with comedian Dax Shepard.
However, after starring in Léon (1994), Heat (1995), and Beautiful Girls (1996), the latter playing a teenage girl who has a relationship with an older man, Portman was fully aware of her "lolita" brand. from Hollywood.
However, the Israeli-born actress turned her career around and, with the cost of rejecting roles that would leave her in uncomfortable places, became one of the biggest promises in Hollywood, comparable to her colleagues Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, and DiCaprio, who were also rising to stardom at the time.
So it was that at 16 years old, Natalie had already signed for one of the great franchises, Star Wars, as part of the permanent cast in the new trilogy of the galactic phenomenon.
And at 18, a new choice the young woman demonstrated her firm decision to grow intellectually and professionally, even if it cost her her career as an actress. At the same time that The Phantom Menace (1999) was released, Portman enrolled at Harvard University to study Psychology.
"I don't care if college ruins my career. I'd rather be smart than a movie star," she then told the press. The actress came from an academic family where training and culture were valued, "becoming a professor, doctor and lawyer."
Her parents closely monitored the path taken by Portman in Los Angeles and insisted that she dedicate more time to training. During her college years, she continued filming the remaining installments of Star Wars in the summers and stepped onto the Broadway stage with Meryl Streep in Anton Chekhov's The Seagull.
Her great return to cinema came with Closer (2004), by Mike Nichols, which gave her a Golden Globe, and an Oscar nomination and confirmed her new status as an adult actress. During this stage, she combined failures such as Goya's Ghosts (2006), filming for which she visited Spain, along with phenomena such as V for Vendetta (2005), for which she appeared completely bald at promotional events after filming the famous scene in which he shaves his head.
In 2010, two years after making her directorial debut with the short Eve, Portman's breakthrough role arrived: Black Swan. It won the Oscar, the Golden Globe, the BAFTA, and the Screen Actors Guild Award. She was 30 years old and had won practically everything. But she would receive another nomination at 35 for playing Jacqueline Kennedy in Jackie.
Portman has managed to make a move again and has signed up for the highest-grossing saga of the decade, Marvel, with the Thor films, whose third installment will be released in July 2022.
