Popular director Mike Nichols had a way of showing up exactly when someone needed it most. Natalie Portman experienced that early in her career, when everything looked golden on the outside but felt like something else entirely behind the scenes.
Natalie Portman Struggled For Respect In The Industry Despite Blockbuster Success
The Thor actress had stepped into the industry as a child, with a performance in Léon: The Professional that turned heads. The role proved her skill even at a young age, as she played a girl hardened by tragedy and drawn to vengeance after the men who murdered her whole family.
However, while the film earned acclaim, the attention it brought wasn’t always the kind anyone would want. Portman became the subject of uncomfortable attention from adult men, and that kind of fame weighed heavily. She was left in a state of uncertainty and uneasiness for being a young girl who was constantly placed under a magnifying glass, misread, and s*xualised.
Even as she moved forward, by starring in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and balancing acting with her studies at Harvard, there was a stretch when she didn’t know where she stood in the industry. Unfortunately, Natalie’s big-budget films were not translating into respect, and although she had her name on blockbuster posters, behind the scenes, she was not being called up by directors as she had hoped.
natalie portman at the premiere of star wars: the phantom menace (1999) pic.twitter.com/CChvTQYjSB
— 2000s (@PopCulture2000s) May 19, 2023
Natalie Portman’s Career-Changing Encounter With Mike Nichols
After that came the play The Seagull, and with it Natalie’s meeting with Mike Nichols. For the actress, it was more than a collaboration and soon became a turning point in the best possible way. Nichols had built his name on sharp films and smarter theatre, but what stood out was how deeply he believed in people. He saw something in Portman at a time when she wasn’t sure anyone else did.
Nichols not only talked about it, but he acted as well and quietly, without making a show, he connected her with filmmakers and vouched for her when others had stepped away. “Star Wars had come out around the time of Seagull, and everyone thought I was a horrible actress.”
Natalie explained to New York Magazine. “I was in the biggest-grossing movie of the decade, and no director wanted to work with me. Mike wrote a letter to Anthony Minghella and said, ‘Put her in Cold Mountain, I vouch for her.’ And then Anthony passed me on to Tom Tykwer, who passed me on to the Wachowskis. I worked with Milos Forman a few years later.”
Because of him, Natalie went from being written off to landing meaningful roles in films like Cold Mountain and later V for Vendetta. Nichols had done this for many stars, but that never made it less personal.
Natalie Portman’s face while thanking Mike Nichols in her Golden Globe speech when she won for CLOSER. Agreed. Points were made. pic.twitter.com/nVla39QIgR
— [kie.ran] (@danblackroyd) January 15, 2020
Natalie Portman’s Deep & Personal Bond With Mike Nichols
Natalie and Nichols’ bond went beyond scripts and stages. He was the one who helped her off the floor, literally, during a heartbreak that left her feeling lost. The actress disclosed, “When I was 25, I had my heart broken—the rupture of my adolescence, the big heartbreak. I was at his apartment on the floor, and he picked me up and gave me a pep talk and sent me to a doctor and straightened me out—literally peeled me off the floor.”
A few years later, he cast her in Closer, giving her one of her most unforgettable roles. Natalie Portman held her own even though she was surrounded by a powerful cast and walked away with an Oscar nomination. It’s easy to count the moments when things go well. It’s harder to remember who stood beside you when they didn’t. For Portman, Nichols was that person.
Natalie Portman in Closer (2004), dir. Mike Nichols pic.twitter.com/KHXFayBBtW
— morgan (@kissmemiyake) July 13, 2021
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