Natalie Portman: ‘I wouldn’t be an actress today if I’d had siblings’

If the current Oscar hype surrounding actress Natalie Portman proves to be correct, next month the 29-year-old may step onto the stage at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles to receive her first ever Academy Award. 

The star of Black Swan — which opens in Irish cinemas this week — will most likely give a speech thanking her devoted parents, her father, fertility specialist Avner Hershlag and mother, Shelley Stevens. But right there, any references to Portman’s immediate family will end. 

An only child, Portman believes that she would never have had the opportunity to become an actress if she’d had brothers or sisters, saying that her parents would not have been able to devote so much time to her acting career. 

“I had the sole attention of my parents. And you know what? If I had had brothers or sisters I would have never become an actress,” said Portman who landed her first major movie role at the age of 13 in the acclaimed drama, Leon: The Professional. 

“My mother has accompanied me to every audition and every acting class. With more children that would have never been possible. They would have been jealous of me.” 

A precocious enigma within Hollywood circles, Portman has confounded the usual expectations of child-actressturned star with her beguiling mix of brains, beauty and unusual poise. In a shallow industry littered with the ghosts of young actors lost to rehab, Portman remains a breath of fresh air. 

Extolled by Vanity Fair magazine as “the Audrey Hepburn of her generation”, Portman has become the “thinking man’s babe”, a critically acclaimed method actress with an impressive intellect whose pole dancing in the 2004 movie Closer won her countless male fans (inset). 

In 1999 Portman decided to give Hollywood up to enrol at Harvard where she graduated four years later with a psychology degree. 

A committed linguist with a passion for travel, the actress is fluent in French and Hebrew and has also studied German, Japanese and Arabic. She is a devoted vegetarian, voted “sexiest vegetarian of 2002” by the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). 

Portman, who was born in Jerusalem, moved to the United States in 1984 so her father could attend medical school. According to People, she was spotted by a modelling scout at age nine but turned down a contract to model, telling the scout that she “wanted to act.” 

At 13 she wowed the critics with her performance as an apprentice assassin in the hitman drama, Leon: The Professional. She won her first leading lady role in 1999 as Padme Amidala in the Star Wars prequel trilogy but missed the New York premiere so she could stay home and study for her high school exams. 

While on the road for her movies, Portman’s parents accompanied her everywhere, insisting that she continue her education and encouraging her to explore the cultural heritage of the countries that she visited. 

“My parents are the opposite of stage parents in that they’re still not so sure about the whole Hollywood thing,” Portman said. “I got a degree in psychology at Harvard and my dad is still saying, ‘This being an actress thing is cute, but don’t you think it’s time to go to grad school?’.” 

Last week the actress announced that she is preparing for her greatest role yet: impending motherhood with fiance Benjamin Millepied, a French choreographer who she met on the set of the Black Swan. In the movie, Portman plays an ambitious ballerina driven to madness in pursuit of finding her inner black swan. 

Portman took the role to heart, training with the New York City Ballet for an entire year before shooting began, often spending eight hours a day in the dancing studio. The training was so intense that Portman lost 20 pounds in the process and suffered a twisted rib and serious concussion. 

But it is this devotion and talent to her work that has won Portman praise. 

“I felt at times that I was working with an equal,” said acclaimed Hollywood veteran Susan Sarandon. 

“She has a natural grace that doesn’t make her seem as if she’s of her generation 

- Caitriona Palmer