Movies

Before Natalie Portman started her career in showbusiness, she was discovered by a talent agent and was asked if she would like to work for Revlon as a product endorser, but this pretty young lady eventually turned down the offer and instead pursued her dreams in making it to Hollywood. In 1994 she auditioned for the movie Leon (a.k.a. The Professional) by Luc Besson but was initially turned down and with her constant auditioning she eventually got the part. She played the role of an orphan who befriended a much older guy who worked as an assassin. The movie opened on November of 1994 and it was her first acting debut at the tender age of 13. She then later did a short film entitled Developing which was soon aired on television.

This paved way for the young budding actress to land in other film projects in the mid-90’s with such movies like Heat, Everyone Says I Love You and the sci-fi comedy film Mars Attacks! And she appeared on her first major acting role for the movie Beautiful Girls. She was also considered to be first choice for the movie adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Romeo+Juliet but producers felt her age wasn’t suitable enough and the role was given to Claire Danes who starred opposite Leonardo DiCaprio. Portman got herself involved in Broadway as she played the lead role of Anne Frank in The Diary of Anne Frank. She later was offered the movie Anywhere But Here but after reading the script and found out that there was a particular scene that involved sex and nudity, Natalie turned down the offer. Director Wayne Wang and actress Susan Sarandon demanded that the script be re-written and when they showed the revised script to Portman, she gave it a go and joined the project. The movie opened in theatres in 1999 and this is where Portman got her very first Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Ann August. Critics have written that Sarandon’s acting was good but Portman’s acting role was astonishing.

But the biggest break she got in Hollywood came in the late 90’s when she appeared on George Lucas’ Star Wars Trilogy where she played the role of Padme Amidala. Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace opened in 1999 and the movie was a very huge success in the box-office that it made Portman an instant celebrity. She then later signs up with another movie project where she played the lead role of a teenage mother in Where The Heart Is.

Portman eventually went on to do the other two Star Wars movies including the highest-grossing Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith in 2005 and in March of 2006, she appeared in Alan Moore’s graphic novel V for Vendetta where she shaves off her head bald for the role and for a time sported her hair really short for which she even got a Mohawk and told the press that it felt kind of wonderful to throw away vanity for a bit. Other movie credits under her belt included a cameo appearance for the movie Zoolander starring Ben Stiller, Cold Mountain where she starred in a small role along with Jude Law and Nicole Kidman and she did two other independent films entitled Garden State and Closer where Portman won a Golden Globe award for Best Supporting Actress for the said movie in her role as Alice. Currently, she was last seen in the children’s movie Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium and the historical drama The Other Boleyn Girl starring opposite Eric Bana and Scarlett Johannson.

See more of Natalie Portman’s videos by clicking on this link