If you look at the history of Hollywood irony, few stories are as stark as what Natalie Portman went through with ‘Star Wars‘. She was a Harvard-bound prodigy, she got an Oscar nomination before she turned 30, and was the queen of a galaxy far, far away. And yet for nearly five years, the biggest movie star on the planet could not get a single director to hire her.
In a 2014 interview with New York Magazine, a conversation that has resurfaced as Portman keeps winning awards, she talked about the damage ‘Star Wars‘ did to her career. ‘Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace‘ came out in 1999 and made over a billion dollars around the world. But Portman, just 18 years old, found herself professionally poisoned.”Everyone thought I was a horrible actress,” Portman told the publication. “I was in the biggest grossing movie of the decade, and no director wanted to work with me.“
Natalie Portman on Fanboy Backlash and Bad Reviews
This was a brutal shock for a young actress who had blown everyone away in ‘Léon: The Professional‘ and held her own against Al Pacino in ‘Heat‘. The prequels, directed by George Lucas, got torn apart by critics for their stiff dialogue and heavy use of green screens. The movies made money, but they wrecked reputations.
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Portman and her co-star, Jake Lloyd, took the worst of the fanboy anger. “I didn’t yet know that angry nerds blasting you online is simply the nature of the beast,” she later said. “It was a bummer because it felt like people were so excited about the new ones.”
How Mike Nichols Saved Natalie Portman After ‘Star Wars’
At her lowest point, when Hollywood had written her off as a wooden queen headed straight for B-movie hell, Portman found an unlikely hero. His name was Mike Nichols, the legendary director.
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While the world was making fun of ‘Attack of the Clones‘, Portman was performing Chekhov’s ‘The Seagull‘ on a New York stage. Nichols saw the real talent beneath all that franchise makeup and hired her for the 2004 movie ‘Closer.‘ But he didn’t stop there. He got frustrated by how snobby the industry was being, so he started writing letters to other directors on her behalf.
“Mike wrote a letter to Anthony Minghella and said, ‘Put her in Cold Mountain. I vouch for her,‘” Portman recalled. That recommendation started a chain reaction. Minghella told Tom Tykwer about her, Tykwer told the Wachowskis, and they eventually cast her as the lead in ‘V for Vendetta.‘
That chain of goodwill saved her career. ‘Closer‘ got Portman her first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. It proved that the girl from Naboo actually had real range.
From Horrible Actress to ‘Black Swan’ Oscar Win
Portman’s fight to prove she was not a “horrible actress” came to a head in 2011. She starred in Darren Aronofsky’s psychological horror ‘Black Swan‘. She threw herself into the role of Nina Sayers, a fragile ballerina falling apart into madness. The performance was raw, physically brutal, and impossible to ignore.
At the 83rd Academy Awards, Natalie Portman won the Oscar for Best Actress. It was not just a win for that performance; it was the final, loud answer to all the ‘Star Wars‘ critics who had written her off ten years earlier.
She has since added more Oscar nominations, for ‘Jackie‘ in 2016, making her one of the most careful and respected actresses of her generation. She survived a backlash from the franchise as a child actor and came out on top.
Natalie Portman Looks Back at ‘Star Wars’ Prequels Now
Today, Portman looks back at her time as Padmé Amidala with a calm, thoughtful eye. She admits that a lot of people who grew up with the ‘Star Wars‘ prequels have gone back and re-evaluated them with real affection. “With the perspective of time, it’s been re-evaluated by a lot of people who actually really love them now,” she said recently.
But for Portman, the whole thing is still a tough lesson about how fickle Hollywood can be. She has proven every single doubter wrong. She has no regrets, even though she does admit she would go back to the franchise that once shut her out. “Life’s only fun if you’re open to every possibility,” she joked in a 2025 interview.
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