Natalie Portman

Natalie Portman, born Natalie Hershlag in Jerusalem, Israel on June 9, 1981, is a Golden Globe-winning, Academy Award-nominated Israeli-American actress.
As a young child, Portman spent her school holidays attending theater 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 roles in films such as Heat, Everyone Says I Love You and Mars Attacks!, as well as having a major role in Beautiful Girls.
In the late 1990s, she was cast as Padmé Amidala in the Star Wars prequel trilogy. She placed a priority on her education and pursued tertiary studies at Harvard University even though it had potential to conflict with her acting career. Recent roles include Garden State, Closer, and V for Vendetta. For Closer, she received a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Academy Award.

Biography

Early life

Portman was born in Jerusalem, Israel. Her mother, Shelley Stevens, is a Jewish American housewife who now works as her agent (she is an artist by hobby and not profession). Portman's father's family members are descendants of Jewish immigrants from Poland and Romania, while her mother's family members were Jewish immigrants from Austria and Russia; her paternal grandfather's parents died in Auschwitz and her Romanian-born great-grandmother was a spy for the British during World War II.
Portman's parents met at a Jewish student center at the Ohio State University, where Portman's mother was selling tickets. Portman's father returned to Israel, but the two corresponded and were married when Portman's mother visited Israel a few years later. When Portman was three years old, her family moved from Israel to her mother's native United States, where her father pursued his medical training. The family lived in Washington, D.C. in 1984 (she attended the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School) and then Connecticut in 1988, before finally settling down in Syosset, New York in 1990. Portman has said that although she "really loves the States," her "heart's in Jerusalem. That's where I feel at home." During the latter part of 2005, Portman filmed Goya's Ghosts.

2006-present

Portman appeared on Saturday Night Live on March 4, 2006 , hosting the show with musical guest Fall Out Boy and special guest star Dennis Haysbert. In a now-famous SNL Digital short, she portrays herself as an angry gangsta rapper (with Andy Samberg as her Flava Flav-esque partner in Viking garb) during a faux-interview with Chris Parnell, saying she cheated at Harvard University while high on pot. (Note: NBC edited out all references to Harvard and smoking pot from the the version of the video available on at NBC.com) In another sketch, she portrays a student named Rebecca Hershlag (her actual surname) attending a Bar Mitzvah, and in an installment of the recurring sketch The Needlers (a.k.a. Sally and Dan, The Couple That Should Be Divorced), plays a fertility specialist (her father's profession).
V for Vendetta opened in early 2006. Portman portrayed Evey Hammond, a young woman who is saved from the secret police by the main character, V. Portman worked with a voice coach for the role, learning to speak in an English accent. Maxim magazine named Portman #33 on its annual Hot 100 list, citing her V for Vendetta bald head as a huge accomplishment proving "you don't need hair to be hot."
Portman has commented on V for Vendetta's political relevance, and mentioned that her character, who joins an underground anti-government group, is "often bad and does things that you don't like" and that "Being from Israel was a reason I wanted to do this because terrorism and violence are such a daily part of my conversations since I was little," although the film "doesn't make clear good or bad statements. It respects the audience enough to take away their own opinion". Portman's upcoming films include Goya's Ghosts and Free Zone (an Israeli film which received a limited U.S. theatrical release in April 2006). She is set to appear in the children's film Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, which began filming in April 2006; Portman has said that she was "excited to do a kids movie."

Personal life

Beliefs

Portman has advocated for environmental causes from a young age, becoming a member of the environmental song and dance troupe The World Patrol Kids at age 12. She is a self-proclaimed "animal lover," and has been a vegetarian since she was eight years old.
Portman has spent 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 traveled 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 conducted backstage at the Live 8 concert in Philadelphia and appearing on the PBS program Foreign Exchange with Fareed Zakaria she discussed micro-financing.
Portman commented in an interview that "I'm much more like the product of a doctor than I am a Jew." On the concept of the afterlife, she comments "I don't believe in that. I believe this is it, and I believe it's the best way to live."
Portman also made headlines when she was moved away by Israeli Police on February 23, 2005 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 pair 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' behavior violated the code of conduct.
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 from Israel and film shooting in Berlin. The policeman told her not to drive in the tunnel, but to take the bridge instead. "I've never had that happen to me before," Portman said. "It's supposedly random... I didn't understand that logic. If you're a suspect, don't take the tunnel, take the bridge?"

Education

Portman held a 4.0 GPA throughout high school. She has said that she was "used to As" but admits to reading about institutional grade inflation in the Ivy Leagues in the New York Times. She reported on a talk show, "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. Despite her high profile and the affluence of her parents, at 13 she switched ("because I couldn't stand it anymore") to the public Syosset High School in Syosset, New York, graduating in June of 1999. Portman reportedly had to miss the premiere of Star Wars: Episode I so she could study for her high school final exams.
After high school, Portman enrolled at Harvard University where she graduated with a bachelor's degree in Psychology on June 5 2003. In 2005 Portman pursued graduate studies at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Portman is credited as a research assistant to Harvard Professor Alan Dershowitz's The Case For Israel. She was a research assistant to Dr. Stephen M. Kosslyn's psychology lab as well, and made a cameo appearance as a guest lecturer for the Terrorism and Counterterrorism course at Columbia University in early March of 2006, discussing themes from her film V for Vendetta.
In addition to Hebrew
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" was entered in the Intel Science Talent Search. In 2002, she contributed to a study on memory called "Frontal Lobe Activation During Object Permanence" during her psychology studies at Harvard.

Relationships

Portman keeps her personal life as far away from the media spotlight as possible. She has always had many close male friends and rumored 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 has had alleged romantic links with actors including Liron Levo,, Hayden Christensen, and Gael García Bernal. In the May 2002 issue of Vogue 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. Recently, she is reportedly dating Nat Rothschild, of the famous multi-billionaire, Jewish banking family. But despite the rumors of her and Rothschild, Natalie has been spotted lately with Gael again. The two were seen kissing in London and Natalie has stated she has had an "intimate" realtionship with him before.

Trivia

• Portman was an understudy in the off-Broadway play, Ruthless!, in which Britney Spears had a role. At a Manhattan hotel in 2003 they co-hosted a carnival-themed New Year's Eve party together.
• A number of songs and albums are named after her, by artists such as Intel One, Team Sleep,
• She is one of the few people with a finite Erdős-Bacon number, meaning she has both appeared in film (giving her a Bacon number) and co-authored at least one academic paper (giving her an Erdős number). These numbers are 9, 2, and 7, respectively.
• In one skit of the March 4, 2006 episode of Saturday Night Live that she hosted, Portman, Maya Rudolph, and Rachel Dratch portray high school classmates. The name of Portman's character is Rebecca Hershlag, an in-joke for those aware that Hershlag is her real last name.
• Because of what her role in V for Vendetta called for, she surprised a lot of fans when she turned up at the premiere with her head shaved.
• Keira Knightley, as handmaiden Sabé, doubled for Portman's character Queen Amidala in .
• Portman also claims that she will never be in a horror movie or any "Jennifer Love Hewitt" movie. She was referring to the hit horror classic I Know What You Did Last Summer
• Turned down the title role in Lolita.
• She was offered the lead role in Warner Brothers House Of Wax but she turned it down.
• She was briefly considered for the role of Rachel Dawes in Batman Begins, though the part was written for Katie Holmes she was considered in case Holmes declined the offer.
• She owns a summer home in Sea Cliff, New York.