Question: Why is Natalie Portman so successful?
Answer: I wanted to say it’s talent and her looks, but it’s a combination of factors, I reckon is ambition, knowing the right people, and picking the right films.
Natalie Portman is definitely attractive, however I don’t find her as attractive as some of the most beautiful actresses like Elizabeth Taylor or Audrey Hepburn. Some of the modern beauty are far more attractive than her, Amber Heard (people hates her) but she’s drop-dead gorgeous, so is Nicole Kidman, Alexandra Daddario, Margot Robbie, and among others. Portman is probably on the 85 percentile range on physical attractiveness; she is definitely a skilled actor, her film debut in Leon the Professional literally blow me away, that level of emotion and skills as a child is amazing, but I haven’t seen that kind of performance in her for a longtime. Kate Winslet, Cate Blanchett and Saoirse Ronan definitely had the talent range over her.
Portman herself had said unlike most child, she was more ambitious, she knew what her interests (acting) was, and she knew how to use her heritage and her skills to her benefit. Being Jewish in the film industry has benefits, when she was 10, she declined the chance to become a Revlon child model, not sure how much she knew at the time, but starting as a model versus starting as an actor definitely have difference in salary and prestige. The hierarchy of prestige in the acting industry is generally models on the bottom, TV actors, movie actors, and finally Theater actors, she started at the top in Broadway in 1997, I believe she played Anne Frank, a role watched by a lot of Jewish people in the film industry.
After getting critical recognition for Leon: the Professional, she branched out to diversify her range, this is quite different from most child actors who specialized in one genre. In only 2 years, she had worked with 3 famous directors: Michael Mann (Heat), Woody Allen (Everyone Says I Love You). and Tim Burton (Mars Attack). In Heat, she played Al Pacino’s suicidal teen daughter, and worked with notable actors such Val Kilmer, Robert De Niro, and John Voight. Just knowing Pacino, de Niro, and Voight opens a lot of doors. In Mars Attack, she worked with Jack Nicholson and Annette Bening. Being Jewish and quite talented in the film industry is not uncommon, but I think the only actor that can compete with her in her age group at that time was Drew Barrymore (she was a bad girl), and Kate Winslet (she was from Britain and know for acting skill, not mainstream films). Portman was also wise enough to not typecast herself, she was offered to play Adrian Lyne’s adaptation of Lolita, she declined because of her previous experience with Leon made her feel uncomfortable, Leon skirted with pedophilia, Lolita definitely is pedophilia.
People had said Natalie Portman attending university helped her career, I don’t buy it. Even Jodie Foster had suffered from career setback after attending Yale, Brooke Shield’s career basically went back-to-square-one after she attends Princeton and had to start from scratch. There’s loads of actors who never went to university and still became successful, many actors did attend university while acting and had to drop out because of time conflict. An actor in college had to juggle audition and going to class, which one do you pick? 4 years is a long time if you don’t have exposure in the film industry; Natalie Portman was lucky, because she played the once-in-a-lifetime role of Padme Amidala in Star Wars prequels, without Star Wars’ overwhelming influence in the film industry, she would’ve disappeared from the media for at least 4 years. Star Wars prequels, despite the polarizing reception, were a massive commercial success, the three films in total had made well over 2.5 billion in the global box office, in her age group, Kate Winslet was the only one able to compete with her in the box office level (thanks to Titanic). The prequels franchise kept Natalie Portman relevant and in the news from 1999 to 2005, long enough for her to graduate from Harvard.
There’s the also the issue with the college she attends, I mean why Harvard? Harvard will be extremely important if she decided to enter politics or finance, for acting, why not go to UCLA or USC, there’s a huge alumni network for people in the film industry. My speculation is she wanted to cultivate an image as a hardworking Jewish actress with this educated, sophisticated grace, similar to Audrey Hepburn, and she’s quite successful at it.
During her university days, she also worked on a few critically acclaimed ensemble films, and continue working in theatre. In 2001 she performed Chekhov’s drama The Seagull, it was directed by Mike Nichols (who directed hit films such as Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Graduate, Silkwood, Working Girl, Birdcage), Portman costarred with acting powerhouses like Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Both Cold Mountain and Closer became critical and commercial success, and she was able to work with ac
