The actress Natalie Portman was about to see her career collapse, after participating in the Star Wars prequels. Who saved her and what was this for?
Did Natalie Portman ever regret her involvement in the Star Wars prequel trilogy?
Yes! Recalling the opportunity that the late Mike Nichols gave her with the staging of The Seagull, the actress confessed to New York Magazine that her performance in the Star Wars movies between 1999 and 2005 temporarily damaged her career.
“Star Wars [Episode I] came close to the Seagull days, and everyone thought I was a terrible actress,” she said Portman. “I was in the highest grossing movie of the decade, but no director wanted to work with me. Mike wrote a letter to her partner Anthony Minghella and said, 'put her on Cold Mountain, I'm behind her.' And then Anthony passed me to Tom Tykwer, who passed me to the Wachowskis."
Still after Episode II: Attack of the Clones and before Revenge of the Sith (2005), Natalie Portman fondly remembers how Nichols sought her out again for Closer, a performance for which she earned an Oscar nomination. Six years later she would win the Oscar for Best Actress for The Black Swan.
What do you think saved Portman from ruining her career? And why should this happen having participated in Star Wars?
