Biography

Natalie Portman

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Overview

Born
June 9, 1981 · Jerusalem, Israel
Birth name
Natalie Hershlag
Nickname
- Nat
Height
5′ 3″ (1.60 m)

Biography

Natalie Portman is the first person born in the 1980s to have won the Academy Award for Best Actress (for Black Swan (2010)).

Natalie was born Natalie Hershlag on June 9, 1981, in Jerusalem, Israel. She is the only child of Avner Hershlag, an Israeli-born doctor, and Shelley Stevens, an American-born artist (from Cincinnati, Ohio), who also acts as Natalie's agent. Her parents are both of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. Natalie's family left Israel for Washington, D.C., when she was still very young. After a few more moves, her family finally settled in New York, where she still lives to this day. She graduated with honors, and her academic achievements allowed her to attend Harvard University. She was discovered by an agent in a pizza parlor at the age of 11. She was pushed towards a career in modeling but she decided that she would rather pursue a career in acting. She was featured in many live performances, but she made her powerful film debut in the movie Léon: The Professional (1994) (aka "Léon"). Following this role Natalie won roles in such films as Heat (1995), Beautiful Girls (1996), and Mars Attacks! (1996).

It was not until 1999 that Natalie received worldwide fame as Queen Amidala in the highly anticipated US$431 million-grossing prequel Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999). She then she starred in two critically acclaimed comedy dramas, Anywhere But Here (1999) and Where the Heart Is (2000), followed by Closer (2004), for which she received an Oscar nomination. She reprised her role as Padme Amidala in the last two episodes of the Star Wars prequel trilogy: Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) and Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005). She received an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in Black Swan (2010).

She received a second nomination for Best Actress, for playing Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in Jackie (2016).
- IMDb mini biography by: Anonymous

Family

Spouse
Children
Parents
Relatives

Trademark

Often portrays characters that are rather smart, mature and grown up for their age
Brown eyes
Lisp sweet voice
Petite figure
Mole on the side of her face

Trivia

Graduated from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 2003 with a Artium Baccalaureus degree in Psychology.
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.
Had to miss the premiere of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) so she could study for her high school final exams.
Can speak two languages, Hebrew and English (her native languages), fluently. Also knows some conversational French.
She was discovered in a pizza parlor and was originally turned down for the role of Mathilda in Léon: The Professional (1994) because she was too young.

Quotes

On Lolita (1997): I don't think there needs to be a movie out where a child has sex with an adult.
On Lolita (1997): I think there's enough exploitation out there that it's not necessary to do more.
Young actors often don't think of the consequences of doing nudity or sex scenes. They want the role so badly that they agree to be exploited, and then end up embarassing family, friends, and even strangers.
On acting: I started to do this at age 11. At age 20, I might say, this is enough.
On violence in the media: We live in a violent world, but since the success of films like Pulp Fiction (1994), it seems every movie has some violence in it, and it's now being used as a form of comedy: audiences are now being encouraged to laugh when people get their heads blown off. I just don't like hearing people laugh at violence.