“There’s just more to think about”: Natalie Portman’s Experience on the Set of Star Wars Had Been Much Difficult than She Had First Anticipated
Natalie Portman is one of the best Hollywood actresses of her generation. Having made her debut at the mere age of twelve in the action-thriller film Léon: The Professional, she went on to star in numerous other movies and even took a break for four years when she pursued a bachelor’s degree at Harvard University. Post the break, she went on to star in many other blockbuster movies such as Star Wars and Thor.
Star Wars is one of the most beloved franchises of all time and features some of the greatest celebrities in Hollywood. Natalie Portman gained international recognition for her work in the 1999 movie Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. She played the role of Padmé Amidala in the movie and found it much more difficult than she had thought it would be.
Natalie Portman Had a Tough Time on the Set of Star Wars
Directed by George Lucas, Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace had an ensemble cast featuring Liam Neeson, Ahmed Best, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, and many others. It was the fourth film in the Star Wars franchise and the first chapter in the Skywalker Saga.
The Phantom Menace had a lot more CGI, something that we take for granted these days, than most other movies at the time. The use of CGI has become much more common over the years but in 1999, it was nearly not as prevalent. Not to mention that working in front of a blue screen is quite hard and Natalie Portman did not have much prior experience with it.
According to a 1999 interview with Star Wars Insider issue #44, Portman revealed how complex the entire process was, saying:
“But they can’t put a dot on the screen for you, because it’s a blue screen for a reason, you know? So you have everyone focusing at the same point and staying out of the way of a certain character if a certain character is there, but they’re not really there. There’s just more to think about.”
The only time the No Strings Attached actress worked with a blue screen before Star Wars was when she did a small role in Mars Attacks! Despite this difficulty, Portman did well in the movie.
Natalie Portman Found Her Role Much More Challenging Than She Had Anticipated
The audience usually does not pay much attention to the use of CGI unless there is something wrong in the movie. For instance, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, released earlier this year, was highly criticized for its sloppy CGI.
In the 1999 Star Wars movie, the audience must have noticed how the actors were not quite making eye contact with the CGI characters. This was obviously an issue, so Natalie Portman found it more challenging than she expected. She said:
“It was a much harder job than I expected. I wasn’t doing hard labor like some people were doing, but it was the first time I ever felt like it was a job. I expected it to be kind of easy because it’s an action movie and I didn’t have a lot of dramatic stuff to do in it.”
The Black Swan actress went on to say that the movie turned out to be good nevertheless, which might not be true by the standards of movies these days.
