Israeli-born actress Natalie Portman
blasts off in the "Star Wars" prequel.

DINA FUCHS
Special to the Jewish News

IV

hen George Lucas' Star
Wars was released in
1977, Natalie Portman
wasn't even born yet.
It was four more years before the
girl who now plays the future mother
of Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia
in the much anticipated Star Wars:
Episode I — The Phantom Menace was
welcomed into the world.
Portman, who will turn 18 next
month, is not only an angelic beauty
— first discovered in a Long Island
pizza parlor by a modeling scout —
she is also a brilliant student who care-
fully picks and chooses her acting
roles. Mindful of "the force" her turn
as the young Queen Amidala is likely
to have on her career, the actress still
insists she doesn't know what she
wants to be when she grows up.
"I'm still not sure if acting is what I
want to do with the rest of my life,"
she recently told Entertainment Weekly.
"It's kinda scary throwing yourself out
there to be in a movie this big. You'll
always be recognized from it.
Unlike most of her co-stars,
Portman was unfamiliar with the Star
Wars phenomenon when she signed
on to the film. But some relatives
quickly clued her in. "My cousins had
always been obsessed with the films,"
she said, "yet I hadn't even seen them
before I got the part. When it all hap-
pened for me, my cousins were
exclaiming, `Oh, my God, you're in
Star Wars.'"
Though her star may be rising in
Hollywood, at home in New York
Portman is just another high school
senior looking forward to graduation.
She's already been accepted at Harvard
and Yale and is waiting to hear from
several other schools. In addition to
college in the fall, she will also appear
as the daughter of Susan Sarandon in
the film Anywhere but Here.
"She's a really smart girl who has
had a very rarefied upbringing, who
has been raised with a lot of confi-
dence and self-esteem, so she seems

Dina Fuchs is a senior sta f f writer at our
sister publication the Atlanta Jewish Times,

5/14
1999

Detroit Jewish News

A star is born: Portman takes on
the role of Queen Amidala in "Star
Wars: Episode I — The Phantom
Menace." The young queen's se.solve
is put to the test by an invasion of
her peaceful planet that embroils
her in intergalactic

older than she is in many ways,"
Sarandon told Vanity Fair about her
young co-star. "I felt at times that I
was working with an equal. She has a
natural grace that doesn't make her
seem as if she's of her generation."
Indeed, Portman embraced her role
as The Phantom Menace's young queen
with an understanding that the char-
acter is a role model. "It was wonder-
ful playing a young queen with so
much power," she noted. "I think it
will be good for young women to see

a strong woman of action who is also
smart and a leader."
Portman was born in Jerusalem on
June 6, 1981, the only child of an
Israeli physician and his American
wife. The family moved back to the
United States when Natalie was 3, and
settled on New York's Long Island six
years later. They return to Israel regu-
larly to visit relatives, and the actress is
a proud Jew who is fluent in Hebrew.
"I'm not religious at all, but Israel is
such a spiritual place," she once said.

"I hope there will be peace there.
Israelis and Arabs are cousins; we have
the same descendants — yet there is
this hatred. It's just ridiculous that
people kill other people in the name
of religion."
Portman has had a meteoric rise.
Two years ago, after a handful of
movie roles, she was cast as the lead in
James Lapine's Broadway production
of The Diary of Anne Frank. It was a
role she was drawn to, having read the
book 10 times. To prepare for the
play, she visited the secret annex in
Amsterdam where the Frank family
spent two years hiding from the Nazis.
She also met with Miep Gies, the
woman who funneled supplies to the
family during the war.
During the show's run, she appeared
on stage eight times a week, earning
praise from theater critics, while still
maintaining her "A" average in school.
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin
Netanyahu and his wife even took
time out to see her performance when
they were in New York, meeting with
Natalie after the show. "She has a mag-
netic quality, the same one that one
imagines Anne Frank would have
had," Lapine said of Portman.
Despite their daughter's success,
Portman's parents still watch over their
only child carefully, taking a huge
interest in the parts she chooses to
play. "They talk to the director for
hours before every project I do to
make sure I'm not going to be doing
anything that's going to hurt me in
my personal life," she told Vanity Fair.
It was for that very reason that
Portman turned down the lead oppo-
site Jeremy Irons in the controversial
film version of Lolita. In the upcom-
ing Anywhere but Here, a sex scene had
to be rewritten before Portman would
sign onto the movie. "My parents are
really protective of me, especially
when it comes to sexy movies. Ninety
percent of the scripts I get are sexy
[with] a lot of nudity," she has noted.
"I think if you're going to have nudity
in a film, you should only do it if it is
really necessary. Right now I would
never do nudity, and I don't know if
I'll ever be comfortable with it."
But her parents' watchful eye has
helped keep Portman on the straight