The two directors who influenced Natalie Portman the most
When Natalie Portman was just 11 years old, she was cast in Luc Besson’s crime thriller Leon The Professional. Playing Mathilda, a young girl who comes home from the shop to discover her entire family has been massacred, Portman proved herself to be an incredibly talented actor despite her lack of experience.
As Mathilda seeks revenge on her family’s killers, Portman’s performance is emotionally charged and full of spirit, and it is impressive how well the actor was able to present her character with such complexity despite her young age.
By the end of the decade, Portman had landed a role in one of the biggest franchises of all time – Star Wars. Playing Padmé Amidala in The Phantom Menace, the actor rose to greater prominence, soon becoming a Hollywood mainstay.
Since then, she has appeared in a mixture of indie movies with complex themes and unconventional forms, alongside commercial hits like Thor and Avengers: Endgame. Refusing to box herself into certain genres and characters, Portman has graced our screens in an array of contrasting roles over the years, even winning an Oscar for her performance in Black Swan.
In 2015, she released her first directorial feature, A Tale of Love and Darkness, in which she also starred. The movie was received fairly positively, and in an interview with The Guardian, Portman revealed the two filmmakers who inspired her the most as she explored life in the director’s chair.
Her first pick was Mike Nichols, who directed Portman in Closer, one of her most significant early adult roles. Her performance in the romantic drama earned her a ‘Best Supporting Actress’ nomination at the Academy Awards. Discussing her love for Nichols, who also directed Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Graduate and Silkwood, Portman called him “a huge influence”.
She added, “He emphasised story so much. He was always telling the story over and over again to the cast so that everyone’s in the same moment.”
Portman’s other main source of inspiration was Badlands director Terrence Malick, who also directed the actor in two of his films – 2015’s Knight of Cups and 2017’s Song to Song. The notoriously private director made a string of well-received movies in the 2010s, including The Tree of Life and A Hidden Life, and is known for his epic explorations of humanity.
Revealing why she loves Malick’s work, Portman said, contrasting him with Nichols, “He’s completely different. He’s just constantly pushing to paint from life and not from other films. Whenever they say ‘It has to be a three-act structure’ or whatever, he’s like: ‘That’s not true. You portray the world as you experience it.’”
Evidently, Portman has been inspired by both directors’ penchants for breaking the cinematic rulebook. The filmmakers prove that to be successful, you don’t have to adhere to any expectations or guidelines – what is most important is going with your natural instincts and prioritising feelings.
