Take Notes from Natalie Portman

In 1994 Natalie Portman burst onto the acting scene with her performance in the critically acclaimed Leon (The Professional). The cast included such talents as Jean Reno, Danny Aiell0 and Gary Oldman. Ms. Portman was only thirteen when the movie debuted with an entire future ahead of her that could see superstardom, multi-millions, countless awards, failure, or mediocrity. To her and her parent's credit, they chose to make Portman a superstar not only for her good looks and appeal to young girls but more importantly for her tremendous talent that was developed and nurtured over her subsequent films.

In the past year, she has been featured in three hit movies, Garden State, Closer, and Star Was: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. During this span she has won a Golden Globe and received her first Oscar nomination, losing in a toss-up to Cate Blanchett (who had been nominated previously). But how has she made the transition from unknown actress with a breakout performance at age thirteen to credible and recognized adult actress in just over a decade? The road she has traveled has been well selected and other young actresses and actors would be wise to take notes.

As opposed to pursuing projects that would be Natalie Portman vehicles or trying to establish her brand name as a teenage powerhouse, she early on took on roles that were smaller than the one she had in Leon. Among the roles, some were challenging, some were not, and most of the films were not extremely commercially successful. However, what was consistent about the films that she chose was that she was working with talented, established actors whom she would presumably be networking with and learning from.

After Leon, the next big film she did was Michael Mann's 1995 crime drama, Heat, that had an essemble cast that included: Val Kilmer, Ashley Judd, Jon Voight, Mykelti Williamson, and, biggest of all, the first ever scene pairing of Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro. She continued to select scripts that had in many cases essemble casts. Thus, she has subsequently also worked with: Woody Allen, Tim Roth, Ed Norton, Alan Alda, Julia Roberts, Annette Bening, Jack Nicholson, Liam Neeson, Samuel L. Jackson, Susan Sarandon, Stockard Channing, Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, and Renee Zellweger (to name only those with Oscar nominations). The roles she has chosen have been safe to the extent that she was not the main star for most of them, but the characters have been very mature for their age. This last point is key because it is often times difficult for successful child actors to transition into successful adult actors. One need only recollect Macaulay Culkin or look at the Olsen twins' and Lindsay Lohan's current struggles to see this. Portman however was already playing older roles as a teen (indeed her first was a very mature one). But working with those greats must have given her an education in acting equal to if not surpassing the one she received at Harvard.

The final smart thing she did was to sign on to the three picture deal that was George Lucas' latest trilogy installment of the Star Wars saga. These movies were assured to be box office hits (even if they did not receive raved reviews). This decision meant that she could take chances because there would be three films over 6 years that were sure to be huge events putting her name right back in the headlines each time.

Portman in the interim has also graduated high school and college (Harvard) and is now one of the hottest and most talented young actresses in Hollywood. She is much further along the path to securing a long career with meaningful roles as a female than some of her contemporaries such as Kirsten Dunst, Anna Paquin, and Christina Ricci. So for those young actresses looking to do what Portman has, take roles where the character is very mature for her age. Tend to adult movies rather than kids movies. Do as many films with great actors as possible even if the films themselves are not great. And finally, don't forget that you are making a name for yourself, so it is important to do a blockbuster every now and again; think: Scarlett Johansson doing The Island.