Natalie Portman is popularly known for her talent and her unforgettable roles. She's starred in some of the most important movie franchises in show business, such as Marvel and Star Wars, and has also acted in independent films. Her career is too long to list in one article, but that's not the point here.
Everybody knows her amazing characters, but how much do fans know about the actress herself? In this article, readers will find all they need to learn about this artist that has earned a place in everyone's hearts. Here are ten facts people didn't know about the great Natalie Portman.
10 She Was Discovered At A Pizza Restaurant
Natalie was very young when she was spotted by a modeling agent at a restaurant. The man, who worked for Revlon Cosmetics, approached ten-year-old Natalie and offer her the opportunity of becoming a child model.
She turned down the opportunity, as she wasn't interested in being a model. It was a job she found quite boring. However, she did use the fact of knowing a Revlon representative to her advantage and found herself an acting agent. That was the beginning of what would be her incredible career.
9 She Acted On An off-Broadway Musical
It was in 1992 and it was one of Natalie's first serious acting jobs. She was part of the cast of the musical Ruthless!, a play about a schoolgirl who would (literally) kill for the lead role at the school play. Laura Bundy, who was around the same age as Natalie, was the lead, and she was her understudy.
Believe it or not, she auditioned right after ten-year-old Britney Spears turned down the same job because it was (understandably) too much pressure for her. Natalie and Laura became very good friends right away.
8 Leon: The Professional
Her first on-screen job was a starring role in the movie Leon: The Professional. Natalie was only thirteen years old back then. She played Mathilda, an orphan girl who gets into serious trouble when she accidentally befriends the wrong people.
Her parents were reluctant to let her take the job, even after some of the most violent parts were removed. Even so, Natalie said he was harassed and sexualized after that role. It's a good thing the film industry has evolved since then.
7 She Changed Her Name
Since she was too young when she found herself in the spotlight, she felt the need to protect herself, and that meant making sure she had her privacy. That's why, before her first job in The Professional, she changed her last name from Hershlag to her grandmother's maiden name, Portman.
It was a very intelligent move, and it worked for a while. More importantly, it allowed her to spend her younger years with relative privacy. Soon, however, she became the superstar she is now.
6 She Worked In An Independent Short Film
After working on The Professional, young Natalie went back to school. However, during a break, another opportunity came to her. Marya Cohn, a screenwriter, and director was making her short film Developing, a story about the life of a woman with breast cancer (played by star Frances Conroy) and her young daughter.
Her performance was impressive and the short film was a success, winning awards at the Belgian Festival Mondial du Cinéma de Court Métrage and the St. Petersburg Message to Man Film Festival.
5 She's An Ivy League Graduate
Aside from being an incredibly talented actress and a beautiful woman, Natalie is also a Harvard graduate. In the year 2000, after finishing one of her films, she enrolled at Harvard University and began working on her Bachelor's degree in Psychology.
During that time she didn't do a lot of acting jobs and concentrated on studying, but she worked as a research assistant and even co-wrote a study titled "Frontal lobe activation during object permanence: data from near-infrared spectroscopy." Natalie graduated from Harvard in 2003.
4 She Wrote A Scientific Paper In High School
Natalie was a very smart kid, and she managed to use that intelligence to make her career grow. But she used her intellect to a lot of other things too.
She wrote a paper in high school titled "A Simple Method To Demonstrate the Enzymatic Production of Hydrogen from Sugar", along with scientists Ian Hurley and Jonathan Woodward. That paper was included in the Intel Science Talent Search, and it can also be found in Harvard's Astrophysics Data System.
3 A Script Was Changed Just For Her
After she finished high school in 1999, she was offered a part in the movie Anywhere But Here. She considered the part but ultimately turned it down because it included a sex scene she didn't feel comfortable doing. However, Susan Sarandon, who was starring in the movie, and director Wayne Wang wanted her for the role, so they demanded that that part of the script was rewritten.
Natalie's performance was described as "astonishing" and "unlike any number of actresses her age, she's neither too maudlin nor too plucky."
2 She Executive Produced One Of Her Movies
When she made No Strings Attached with Ashton Kutcher, Natalie not only starred it, she also executive produced it. It was the first time she was in that position, and on top of that, she had to balance the production with her acting role.
She said "it was a really exciting process to get to be involved for the first time" and that "seeing how it changed and why it changed, and to have Ivan’s expertise of pacing and figuring out" made it easier. "To learn those things through the process was really exciting."
1 Her Activism
The causes Natalie Portman supports are endless. She's been an advocate for animal rights since she was eight years old when she became a vegetarian, and she's been speaking up for gender equality throughout most of her career. In 2018, she narrated the documentary Eating Animals in support of animal rights and has been a vegan since 2009.
Also, she's an active supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement and has made efforts to help pass the ballot Measure R in Los Angeles.