PT Does Natalie Portman hate Star Wars?

I’ve been having this doubt in my head for some time, so I thought it would be useful to open a thread and directly ask you what you think.

Am I the only one who, over time, has gotten the impression that Natalie Portman is ashamed of what she did in Star Wars? I don’t know why, but ever since I started defending the Prequels from the attacks of the OT purists, and ever since I started researching the Prequels looking at the behind the scenes and the interviews, I’ve always gotten the impression that Natalie is ashamed of Padmé. After she finished Star Wars, in the following years, whenever someone asked her to comment on what she did in Star Wars, I always gotten the impression that she was forcing herself to say that she liked it, even though she doesn’t really think so. Natalie doesn't behave like Ewan McGregor for example. Ewan always proudly defends what he did in the Prequels, he walks with his head held high. But Natalie seems a little forced when she talks about it, almost as if she want to say that it sucked but she don't want to say it publicly.

Probably this doubt of mine comes from a certain amount of ignorance, because obviously I havenn't read and seen all the interviews that have been made to her, so I could very well be wrong. That’s why I ask you directly, because maybe you're more experienced in the subject and you can tell me if I’m wrong. The truth is, I really care about what she thinks because I love Padmé so much, and If she hates her, even if it’s just a little bit, then I can't do anything but feeling bad about that. Actually, I don’t even call myself a Natalie fan and I don’t care about her opinion in general, in fact, I often disagree with many of the things she says. But I'm interested in her opinion on this particular subject, because it's a subject that touches me closely.

 

I wouldn't say she hates it or is ashamed; but she seems to have moved on from it and doesn't discuss it much. But I'm just guessing.

 

she's a parodox, she seems jolly when talking about it in BTS stuff

but by her performance it's like an entirely different story. It's certainly strange for sure

 

No, she doesn't hate Star Wars, that's pretty safe to say.

We don't really know what she feels exactly, though. From what we seem to know, she appeared to have had a hard time taking the backlash after the immediate release of the Prequels - probably much like other cast members, which is what J.W. Rinzler alluded to in his short-lived blog. Then also in the first years after the Prequels came out, there was a time when I think it's natural for actors to distance themselves a bit from their most famous work so far, because they don't what to be typecast and just move on.

Nowadays I think she is a lot more relaxed, being older and probably more formed both as an actress and as a person. She even dressed herself up again as Queen Amidala in 2018, although I don't know if it's allowed to post that video here due to language (just go to YouTube an search for "Natalie Portman as Padmé Amidala on SNL"). As a compensation for not posting the video, there was another interview in 2019 that probably gives you a pretty good idea on how she feels about her tenure in the Lucasverse nowadays:

 

Maybe she doesn’t want to be solely defined as Padme? Either way, I’m cool with however a performer wants to approach their roles. I always have the films to enjoy and go down memory lane.

 

Add to that she was in her late Teens-Early 20's when she played Padme, and continues to get roles. She might think she wasn't as good as she could have been...

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She's given interviews where she complained about the PT films and the backlash almost ending her career. She said that one director gave her a shot afterwards and then he vouched for her for two other projects.

I don't think she hates Star Wars exactly but I don't think it's high on her personal list of work she's proud of.

 

I seem to recall a program titled Bring Back Star Wars where this British guy traveled around and tried to get the Star Wars Actors back together for a reunion back in 2008-2009. Carrie Fisher was in that program, and I believe she commented that at one point, Mark Hamill was jealous of Harrison Ford's movie career, and at a few times he was Typecast and couldn't get many live action roles...

So I think it worked for every trilogy so far..Actors may get typecast or not many roles and may come to resent their role in Star Wars. But over time, they come to embrace it...

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she doesn't do that much press in general so i've never had a gauge on what she felt.
As for Ewan, he might be enthusiastic, but he's taken some jabs at the films.

 

Ewan has definitely felt insecure about his role in the PT and I think he would admit that too. I think both Natalie and Ewan had a harder time with adapting to Lucas’s more archaic style. I don’t think it’s too much surprise that out of the 3, Hayden seems to have been the closest to Lucas (even showing up to do a SW press tour in China in 2013 and showing up to Lucas’s wedding). There was a quote from Hayden in 2008 during Jumper where he said he’s more interested in seeing how his role is viewed in 20 years and that’s where the legacy of his performance matters.

 

From October 2020:

She seems to be very ok with them

 

Maybe? But I suspect she'd be a bit more positive given where the PT is these days. She seems like someone who kind of goes with the current public pulse. I recall she was kind of down on Garden State in recent years, as that type of film has gone from cool to vaguely "problematic," but I could see that coming back as well before too long.

 

Really? Even if Star Wars wasn't her best work, I would have thought that getting such a high-profile role would only help her career.

 

BAZ Deletion: Non-sequitur and inappropriate as it refers to Portman's face.

 

she doesnt hate Padme, its just that she moved on to other roles. same thing with the rest of her roles. she is playing a character in a story, and when its done, you move on to the next story.
same thing with Harrison Ford.

Ewan Mcgregor has the "star wars curse" where you cant get a job after that role. so he is talking about the biggest role he had.
Mark Hamill is even worse, he is HUGE in the dubbing world. adored by comics-batman fans and known for doing many characters in cartoons and possibly the best joker overall, including live action. but he is still stuck with star wars, because its the biggest role he had. and that is really sad, because he should be proud of his dubbing career.

but when these actors are doing an interview, the questions are always about star wars.



Hayden christensen did get jobs, he just hated the spotlight of the celebrities, so he became a farmer with his wife and family.
he is happier than ever.

 

Hayden is not married. But well, I get your point.

Well, I only know her for Star Wars. I mean, I know Natalie played other roles in other films, but I was never interested in watching the other films she made. Unfortunately, I'm one of those people who tends to associate the actors with certain characters and who no longer want to see certain actors in other films once they have played certain characters. Natalie is Padmé for me. I don’t care about the other films she made, for me she’s Padmé and she will always be Padmé. That’s it. The same applies to Hayden Christensen and Ewan McGregor as well.

 

Yes she hates them because Padme was suppose to turn to the dark side in ROTS:



And instead she had to express her darker self in “Black Swan.”

 

oh really ? i thought rachel bilson is his wife.

 

Lmao.

No, they were together and have a daughter but they were never married. They broke up in 2017.

 

I mean, I'm sure I'll always associate them with Star Wars as well...but my point is that Star Wars gave them name recognition, which is generally a good thing.

 

Same for Hayden, I suddenly recognized him in Life is A House, and etc.

 

Portman has always seemed a little ashamed of her work in the prequels, which would ordinarily reflect poorly on Star Wars, except... after the TROS press junket... well, it could be worse. You could have the entire cast exhausted with the idea of acting in a series of Star Wars movies.

 

Star Wars always launches one star to stardom. The OT was Harrison Ford, PT was Natalie Portman, and ST was Adam Driver.

 

Yeah, but Harrison Ford hated his character too.

 

Maybe that’s tradition then? I think Adam Driver at times has hated on Kylo. “When I saw my costume and lightsaber, which looked like rag tag and stripped down Vader, I was crap! This sucks!” (Paraphrase).