Natalie Hershlag (born June 9, 1981 in Jerusalem, Israel) better known under her stage name Natalie Portman, is an Academy Award nominated and Golden Globe Award-winning Israeli-American actress.

As a child, Portman spent her school holidays attending theatre camps where she developed her love of acting. After some experience in an off Broadway musical, she was cast in Léon at age twelve. During the mid-1990s, Portman had small roles in big films such as Heat, Everyone Says I Love You and Mars Attacks!, as well as having a major role in Beautiful Girls. In the later years of the 1990s, she was cast as Queen Amidala in the Star Wars prequel trilogy which brought her considerable fame. She developed an on-screen persona, playing characters that are rather smart, mature, and even quirky, evidently seen in Anywhere But Here. Her role in Zach Braff's Garden State saw her gain a wider fan base. In the same year, she was nominated for an Academy Award and won a Golden Globe for her role in Closer.

Portman, a Harvard graduate, is considered by many as a young female role model, in part due to her position regarding young adult actors and actresses being exposed to sex in films. She turned down many roles during the 1990s due to her position on the subject. She is also praised for placing the highest priority on education during her years as a child actor and pursuing territory educations even if it would conflict with her acting career.

Early life background

While many actors take on stage names, her professional last name of "Portman" is in fact her maternal grandmother's maiden name. It is rumored that she first adopted it in case her performance in Léon might discredit her family.

Portman is a descendent of Holocaust survivors, though many in her father's family perished. Natalie's paternal family are Israeli descendants of Jewish immigrants from Poland, while her American mother's family is descended from Jewish refugees from Austria and Russia.. When Portman was three years old, her family moved from Israel to the United States for her father to pursue his medical training. They first went to Washington, D.C. in 1984 and then Connecticut in 1988, before finally settling down in Syosset, New York in 1990.

Portman is an only child and very close to her parents, who are often seen with her at movie premieres. Her father, Dr. Avner Hershlag, M.D., is a medical doctor specializing in the research and treatment of human fertility and reproduction (reproductive endocrinology). Her mother, Shelley, studied art in college and always accompanied pre-adult Portman to movie shoot locations. Portman is reportedly between 5'1" and 5'3" tall (approx. 155–160 cm), a size which she often credits with helping her blend into the crowd.

Professional life

Early-1994

Portman started taking dancing lessons at the age of four and performed in local troupes and dreamed of dancing on Broadway. At the age of ten Portman was discovered in a pizza parlor by an agent for Revlon, who offered her an opportunity to model. She asked to be introduced to acting talent scouts.

Portman spent her school holidays attending theatre camps where she forged her love for acting, playing roles in the camp productions such as Dream Laurey in Oklahoma! and Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream. In 1993 Portman was handed her first professional role as an understudy for the off-Broadway musical Ruthless!.

Her inaugural experience in professional theatre led her to audition for Luc Besson's 1994 film Léon (aka The Professional). She was turned down for the role as she was simply too young, but further auditioning won her the part. Soon after Portman was given the part she decided to use Portman, her grandmother's maiden name, as her stage name in the interest of privacy. The film opened on November 18, 1994 making her film début at the age of twelve playing an orphaned girl who befriends a much older assassin.

That same year she auditioned for a role in the short film Developing which aired on television.

1995-1999

She was cast in the high-budget action film Heat. Although she had a small role, she starred alongside some of the industry's biggest names such as Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Val Kilmer. Following the success of Leon, Portman had gained considerable fame for her performance and was approached for the role of Marty in Ted Demme's Beautiful Girls. Following an audition, she was cast in Woody Allen's comedy-musical Everyone Says I Love You. She was also given a role in Tim Burton's famously star-studded Mars Attacks!. In 1996, to Portman's surprise, casting director for the new Star Wars films Robin Gurland contacted her to see if she was interested in playing the female lead in the new films. Portman, still only 14 years old, was speculative at first about the commitment she was making and what impact it would have on her life, as the role would ultimately see her participate in three films over the course of a decade. After meeting with George Lucas and Rick McCallum she signed on to the prequel trilogy. Portman then auditioned for the role of Anne Frank in the Broadway revival of The Diary of Anne Frank. The decision to participate in this production caused her to pull out of the film The Horse Whisperer. In mid-1997, production began on the first of the three Star Wars prequel films, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.

In 1999, she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Ann August in Anywhere But Here. After production she returned to complete her junior year in high school, where she performed The Diary of Anne Frank. She did eight shows a week while attending classes full-time. She later received a Tony nomination for her role as Anne Frank. She was offered a role in the film Anywhere But Here, but after reading the script turned down the role as her character was involved in a sex scene. Director Wayne Wang and actress Susan Sarandon rushed to her support and demanded a rewrite of the script, allegedly saying they would not continue their involvement in the film unless the young actress’s wishes were respected. Portman was shown a new script and she happily joined the project. In early 1999, The Phantom Menace opened and became the highest grossing film of the year and the highest grossing film out of the Star Wars series. Its massive audience and mainstream appeal saw Portman become an instant star. Portman then signed on to play a persevering teenaged mother in Where the Heart Is. After filming Where the Heart Is, she moved into the dorms of Harvard. Anywhere But Here opened in late 1999; she received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

2000-

While pursuing her bachelor's degree in psychology at Harvard, she went to Sydney to film Attack of the Clones. After additional production took place in London in 2001 for Attack of the Clones she prepared for her role in the Broadway production of The Seagull. That same year she was one of many celebrities who made cameo appearances in the comedy Zoolander. In 2002, Attack of the Clones opened around the world. Rumors began to circulate that she and Star Wars co-star Hayden Christensen had developed a relationship, although she declined to confirm any of the accusations. Portman was cast in the film Cold Mountain alongside Jude Law and Nicole Kidman. After graduating from Harvard in 2003, Cold Mountain opened to great success although she only had a short scene in the film. That was followed in 2004 by starring roles in the successful independent movies Garden State and Closer, winning a Supporting Actress Golden Globe for her role as Alice in Closer. She was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the same role.

2005 saw a close to the Star Wars prequel trilogy, with Revenge of the Sith released world-wide on May 19, hailed as the greatest of the prequels and being the second highest grossing film of the year. It was voted Favorite Motion Picture at the People's Choice Awards. Portman had her head shaved on screen for the film adaptation of Alan Moore's graphic novel V for Vendetta, set for release on March 17, 2006. Natalie plays Evey Hammond, the young woman who is saved from the secret police by the main character, V. She first showed off her new look at the premieres of Revenge of the Sith at the Cannes Film Festival, American premiere, and Berlin premiere. She enjoyed having a shaved head, especially after all the hairstyles she had for the Star Wars prequels. She kept her hair shorn short for most of 2005, had a faux-hawk Mohawk, and briefly sported a full Mohawk in late August. In 2005 Portman filmed Goya's Ghosts in Spain with Oscar-nominated actor Javier Bardem and Oscar-winning director Miloš Forman (Amadeus). She begins work on Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium in Toronto in 2006.

Personal life

Education

Portman has always thought education extremely important. She reported on a talk show saying, "I'd rather be smart than be a movie star" and that her goal was to graduate from college even if it ruined her acting career. She graduated Syosset High School in Syosset, New York in June of 1999. After high school she enrolled at Harvard University where she graduated with a bachelor's degree in Psychology on June 5, 2003. Portman is credited as a research assistant to Harvard Professor Alan Dershowitz's Case For Israel. She was a research assistant to Dr. Stephen M. Kosslyn's psychology lab as well. In 2005 Portman pursued graduate studies at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel.

In addition to her native Hebrew and English, Portman has studied and/or can speak (to some degree) French, Japanese, German, and a little Spanish, and she is now learning to speak Arabic.

As a student, Portman co-authored two research papers which were published in professional scientific journals:

• Her 1998 high school paper on the Enzymatic Production of Hydrogen earned her a semi-finalist placement in the Intel Science Talent Search.
• In 2002, she contributed to a study on memory called Frontal Lobe Activation During Object Permanence (PDF) during her psychology studies at Harvard.

Relationships

Portman is notorious for keeping her personal life as far away from the media spotlight as possible. She has always had many close male friends and rumoured suitors who are frequently named as her boyfriends; the unverified gossip is often repeated as fact in tabloids and biographies. In reality, Portman has dated a couple of her college classmates, and there is reasonable evidence for romantic links with actors including Gael Garcia Bernal, Liron Levo, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Hayden Christensen. In Vogue 2002 (May), reprinted at natalieportman.com, Portman called actor/musician Lukas Haas and musician Moby her close friends. She was linked to Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine, but he claims they are friends.

Beliefs

Portman has been a vegetarian and "animal lover" since she was eight years old. The decision to become a vegetarian came after she witnessed a demonstration of laser surgery on a chicken while attending a medical conference with her father. She also loves to read and is often found with a book.

Portman spends some of her free time involved in causes such as the Democrats' 2004 U.S. presidential campaign and ending poverty. In 2004 and 2005 she travelled to Uganda, Guatemala, and Ecuador as the Ambassador of Hope for FINCA international, an organization that promotes micro-lending to help finance women-owned businesses in poor countries. In an interview for the Ecuadorian magazine Cosas in August 2005, she talked about her work with FINCA. She also confirmed that her religion was Judaism, although she was non-practicing. Spanish article available for subscribers, rough English translation.

Portman has also said in a June 2002 Rolling Stone interview that she is not opposed to a lesbian relationship:

I've never dated a woman or anything like that, But, I mean, I think it's much more the person that you fall in love with — and why would you close yourself off to fifty percent of the people?

Controversy

Knows what it's like to be black?

Portman, who had recently read some of the works by W.E.B. DuBois, was interviewed for the August 2004 issue of Allure magazine where she was quoted as saying, "Oh my God! I'm not black, but I know what it feels like!" This prompted her to follow up with an apology letter to their editor, reprinted here.

The “it” I was referring to when I said, “I know what it feels like,” was not intended to signify that I know “how black people feel,” but rather that I know what DuBois’s concept of double-consciousness feels like, in variation. Had my quote included what I actually said preceding that statement, perhaps my meaning would have been clearer. -Natalie Portman

Wailing Wall kissing

On February 23, 2005, Israeli police moved Portman away from Jerusalem's Western Wall after protests by religious Jews who were praying at the holy site. She and Israeli actor Aki Avni were filming a kissing scene near the Wailing Wall for the movie Free Zone. This was deemed to be immodest and men who were praying heckled the couple until police stepped in and suggested they return later. The site is under the authority of Orthodox Judaism, and Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch, who is responsible for the site, said the actors' behaviour violated the code of conduct.

Pulled over by the NYPD

It was reported that on July 8, 2005, Portman was pulled over by the NYPD while driving in a transit tunnel underneath New York City for looking unusual and having an expired registration. She had a shaven head from playing a freedom fighter in V for Vendetta, and had just arrived back in the United States. The policeman told her not to drive in the tunnel, but to take the bridge instead. see account from Newsweek interview

Filmography

Theatrical work

• The Diary of Anne Frank (1999)
• The Seagull (2001)