ACTOR · BORN 1981
Natalie Portman
- Born
- 9 June 1981, Jerusalem, Israel
- Known for
- Léon (1994), V for Vendetta (2005), Black Swan (2010), Your Highness (2011)
90 archived facts 8 topics 1 source Last reviewed Nov 2026
Natalie Portman (born 9 June 1981) is an actor best known for Léon, V for Vendetta and Black Swan.
Natalie Portman over the years
90 Interesting Facts About Natalie Portman
Interesting Facts (25)
- #001
Was briefly referenced in The Social Network (2010). Portman was approached by writer Aaron Sorkin when writing the screenplay to the film to get insider information on Harvard University at that time because she was a fellow student of Facebook co-founders Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin, and also Divya Narendra and Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss.
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- #003
In 1999, magazines reported that Portman started a new trend - wearing logo T-shirts - when they snapped photos of her at her 18th birthday wearing a snug Nesquik shirt. (However, logo T-shirts had already been popular since at least the 1970s) She had borrowed the shirt from her best friend's eight-year-old brother; he was appalled.
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She spoofed her role in Star Wars before becoming involved in the series. In Mars Attacks! (1996), she gives a medal to Lukas Haas in a scene resembling the award ceremony at the end of Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977). The medals were given out by Princess Leia, the daughter of Portman's future character, Queen Amidala. In addition, the recipients of those medals, Haas and Harrison Ford, appeared together in Witness (1985).
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Production Story (13)
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Before she was cast in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999), she had never seen the original Star Wars trilogy. She admitted to James Lipton on Inside the Actors Studio (1994), in 2004, that, before being cast, she didn't know the difference between "Star Wars" and "Star Trek".
- #030
Originally turned down the role of Ann August in the film Anywhere But Here (1999) because of the love scene between herself and Corbin Allred that required nudity. Susan Sarandon, who had co-star approval, said she couldn't continue the movie without Portman, so the script was re-written without the scene and she accepted the role.
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Was the one who led her Brothers (2009) co-star Bailee Madison to Guillermo del Toro for a role in Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (2010). Portman spoke about her young co-star with Alfonso Cuarón, who is a good friend of Guillermo del Toro, and then recommended Madison for a role. She ultimately was cast as a lead character, Sally Hirst. In July 2011, Guillermo del Toro spoke in an interview about how Bailee Madison was "a miracle" and that they had Portman to thank for it.
- #037
Originally turned down the role of Ann August in the film Anywhere But Here (1999) because of the love scene between herself and Corbin Allred that required nudity. Susan Sarandon, who had co-star approval, said she couldn't continue the movie without Portman, so the script was re-written without the scene and she accepted the role.
- #038
Was briefly referenced in The Social Network (2010). Portman was approached by writer Aaron Sorkin when writing the screenplay to the film to get insider information on Harvard University at that time because she was a fellow student of Facebook co-founders Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin, and also Divya Narendra and Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss.
Behind the Scenes (9)
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She has said one of the most difficult challenges of filming Black Swan (2010) was her speaking voice. She stated throughout her career, so far, director Mike Nichols has given her consistent criticism on how childish her voice normally sounds and encouraged her to work with vocal coaches to make it sound deeper and more adult. The role of Nina required her to regress backwards to make her voice more child-like. She felt it was taking her back to a point she worked hard to leave behind.
- #046
Said that it was while working on The Seagull (2002) that she became aware that acting is much more about the process than the product. Most helpful was when she would peek over Philip Seymour Hoffman's shoulder at the notebook he kept, in which he wrote questions and then answers about his character's feelings.
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Characters & Cast (7)
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Has worked with three of the same directors as Carrie Fisher. Firstly, they played on-screen mother-and-daughter Padme and Leia in George Lucas's Star Wars films. Secondly, Woody Allen cast them in Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) and Everyone Says I Love You (1996). Thirdly, Mike Nichols directed Fisher's first film, Shampoo (1975), and Portman in Closer (2004). Portman credits that film with reviving her career after Star Wars. Fisher's career as a writer and script doctor took off after Nichols's film adaptation of Fisher's novel Postcards from the Edge (1990).
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- #051
Though she played Padmé Amidala, the biological mother of Luke Skywalker in three installments of the "Star Wars" movies, she has never personally met Mark Hamill as of 2018; Hamill revealed this to his followers on Twitter when it was Portman's 37th birthday, as well as noting that the Annie Leibovitz photoshoot for Vanity Fair (which features the stars of the first two "Star Wars" trilogies) was shot individually. Portman did, however, meet her onscreen daughter Leia (Carrie Fisher).
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- #054
Owns and operates her own film production company, Handsomecharlie Films, with Annette Savitch. As of 2011, every film produced by the company (except for the short film "Eve", which Portman wrote and directed) has featured Natalie in a lead or supporting role. As well as acting in the films produced by Handsomecharlie Films, she is also credited as an executive producer.
Easter Eggs & References (2)
- #055
She spoofed her role in Star Wars before becoming involved in the series. In Mars Attacks! (1996), she gives a medal to Lukas Haas in a scene resembling the award ceremony at the end of Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977). The medals were given out by Princess Leia, the daughter of Portman's future character, Queen Amidala. In addition, the recipients of those medals, Haas and Harrison Ford, appeared together in Witness (1985).
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Deeper Meaning (3)
- #057
Once during an interview, she offered a metaphor for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the David Hare play "Via Dolorosa". It's about a man who jumps out of a burning building and lands on a passerby, breaking the passerby's leg. The passerby says, "You broke my leg", and the man breaks his other leg to shut him up.
- #058
One of only four actors with an Erdos-Bacon number - 7 for Portman. This represents sum of the degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon (2) and degrees of separation from co-authoring a paper with famed mathematician Paul Erdos (5) having co-authored the peer-reviewed paper "Frontal Lobe Activation during Object Permanence: Data from Near-Infrared Spectroscopy" while a student at Harvard.
- #059
Once during an interview, she offered a metaphor for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the David Hare play "Via Dolorosa". It's about a man who jumps out of a burning building and lands on a passerby, breaking the passerby's leg. The passerby says, "You broke my leg", and the man breaks his other leg to shut him up.
Career & Awards (9)
- #060
Is a spokeswoman for FINCA, a financial charity who gives and recycles small loans to women in poverty stricken countries so they can start small businesses. FINCA's president Rupert Scofield has spoken about feeling lucky to have Portman as a celebrity spokeswoman because she is, "extremely intelligent and committed." Portman has traveled to several countries as a FINCA ambassador and worked with many of the women FINCA's donations have helped.
- #061
One of only four actors with an Erdos-Bacon number - 7 for Portman. This represents sum of the degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon (2) and degrees of separation from co-authoring a paper with famed mathematician Paul Erdos (5) having co-authored the peer-reviewed paper "Frontal Lobe Activation during Object Permanence: Data from Near-Infrared Spectroscopy" while a student at Harvard.
- #062
She became the first client of Artists Management Group to land representation at the powerhouse Creative Artists Agency. CAA refused to work with clients of its former founder Michael Ovitz's AMG; as soon as the one-time super-agent sold out his interest in the management firm, CAA went straight after Portman.
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Participated in a live reading of the 1960 film The Apartment (1960) where she read the part of Fran Kubelik originally portrayed by Shirley MacLaine. The sold out reading directed by Jason Reitman was held on November 17, 2011 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Portman read alongside J.K. Simmons, Ken Jeong, Nick Kroll, and her No Strings Attached (2011) co-star Mindy Kaling.
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In 2006, she appeared as a guest lecturer at Columbia University in a political science course titled "Terrorism & Counterterrorism". She led the class in a discussion about politically infused violence referencing her most recent film at the time, V for Vendetta (2005). Her appearance was part of an MTV short-series, "Stand-Ins", where college professors were replaced with a celebrity instructor for one day.
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Life & Family (22)
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In his 2019 autobiography, "Then It Fell Apart," Moby claims that he dated Portman after she asked him out: "I was a bald binge drinker and Natalie Portman was a beautiful movie star. But here she was in my dressing room, flirting with me." Portman responded forcefully to his version of events, saying that she had just turned 18 when they met (Moby had claimed she was 20), that they had not dated, and that she had distanced herself from him once "I realized that this was an older man who was interested in me in a way that felt inappropriate" (he is 16 years her senior).
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When Roman Polanski was arrested in Switzerland in September 2009 and awaiting extradition to the United States for having raped a 13-year-old girl back in 1975, Portman (along with Harrison Ford, Monica Bellucci, Tilda Swinton, Adrien Brody and many others) signed a petition to free him, even though Polanski did admit that he did have sex with the 13-year-old, committing statutory rape. In a 2018 interview for Buzzfeed to promote Annihilation (2018), Portman stated that she regretted her involvement, alleging that someone was passing the petition around where she lived and she'd ignorantly signed her name to be helpful.
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Was reportedly caught using a fake ID trying to sneak into Boston club called the Roxy. The performer Moby insisted that she was invited by him and refused to perform unless she was admitted. She was admitted, and security watched her as she stood in the back, watched the show, and didn't drink. She later stated in an online interview that the story about sneaking into the Roxy club in Boston was not true and that she and her friends went home after they were denied entrance.
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In January 2011, she became the new face of Dior in the Miss Dior Cherie ad campaign. On February 27, 2011, a video of top Dior designer, John Galliano, going on an anti-Semitic rant in Paris surfaced online. Portman released a statement condemning Galliano's actions, specifying she was "shocked and disgusted," and as a proud Jewish woman refused to associate herself with him from that point on. Since the Miss Dior Cherie ad campaign was set to officially launch two days after the video surfaced, Dior was forced to take legal action to work out a settlement in order to keep Portman as a spokesperson. Galliano was fired on March 1, 2011 and the ad campaign launched as originally planned.
- #085
She often broke down and cried offstage while part of the Broadway adaptation of "The Diary of Anne Frank" in 1997, where she portrayed Anne Frank, because of her personal connections to the events. Her grandparents lost most of their family members in the Holocaust including her paternal great grandparents who were killed at the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland.
- #086
She entered a project into the Intel Science Talent Search in the late 1990s while at Syosset High School. Her project, titled "A Simple Method to Demonstrate the Enzymatic Production of Hydrogen from Sugar", took her to the semi-finals of the Intel contest. She graduated Valedictorian of Syosset High School in 1999 and went on to study Psychology and Neuroscience at Harvard University, graduating in 2003.
- #087
In his 2019 autobiography, "Then It Fell Apart," Moby claims that he dated Portman after she asked him out: "I was a bald binge drinker and Natalie Portman was a beautiful movie star. But here she was in my dressing room, flirting with me." Portman responded forcefully to his version of events, saying that she had just turned 18 when they met (Moby had claimed she was 20), that they had not dated, and that she had distanced herself from him once "I realized that this was an older man who was interested in me in a way that felt inappropriate" (he is 16 years her senior).
- #088
Was a vegetarian from 1989 until 2009 when after reading the book Eating Animals she opted to become a vegan. However she resumed vegetarianism after falling pregnant with her son Aleph to give him the necessary supplements and also due to her insatiable craving for eggs and cheese. Following her son's birth she resumed veganism once again.
- #089
In 1999, magazines reported that Portman started a new trend - wearing logo T-shirts - when they snapped photos of her at her 18th birthday wearing a snug Nesquik shirt. (However, logo T-shirts had already been popular since at least the 1970s) She had borrowed the shirt from her best friend's eight-year-old brother; he was appalled.
- #090
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