Natalie Portman Says The Phantom Menace Taught Her How to Handle Failure
Padmé deserved better reviews.
Natalie Portman is looking back at The Phantom Menace with a lot more peace than most of the internet. In a new interview with Harper's Bazaar, she said the Star Wars prequel was one of her "lucky early experiences of failure" (Harper's Bazaar).
"I was 16, and that got murdered," Portman said. "It was a huge success financially, but all of it was, 'They ruined the franchise. None of them can act. They all suck.'"
What did Portman say about the backlash?
She called the experience "an amazing early lesson in how to read really bad things about yourself," because it taught her to shake off the reviews and start planning the next movie anyway. Her first film, The Professional, also had a rough reception, so she learned very early in her career that a bad reaction from critics doesn't have to be the end of anything.
She also kept the hurt to herself at the time, even though the whole internet seemed to be talking about it. "I don't remember talking to anyone about it. I didn't want to show anyone that I was hurt or anything," she told Harper's Bazaar.
Did The Phantom Menace really hurt her career?
For a while, it honestly did. The movie made about $924 million worldwide in 1999, but Portman has said that directors still didn't want to hire her. "I was in the biggest-grossing movie of the decade, and no director wanted to work with me," she wrote in a 2014 tribute to Mike Nichols. Nichols wrote a letter that helped her land Cold Mountain, and he later cast her in Closer, which earned her first Oscar nomination (UPI).
She went on to win Best Actress for Black Swan in 2011 (so the critics came around eventually).
Why does this matter for Star Wars fans?
My read is that the prequel cast took far more heat than they ever deserved. The scripts had problems, and a lot of the stiff dialogue came straight from the page. Portman, Jake Lloyd and Hayden Christensen were young actors taking the hits for writing and directing choices they didn't make.
The good news is that the prequels have aged into a real favorite for a whole generation of fans who grew up with them, and Padmé is a big part of that. Portman has also said she would come back to Star Wars if anyone asked (Variety). (Lucasfilm, the phone is right there.)
Her next movie is The Gallerist, an art world thriller comedy from director Cathy Yan with Jenna Ortega, and it opens in theaters on December 4 (TheWrap).
If you want to rewatch Padmé's first big outing, here are two good picks. As an Amazon Associate, Church of Nerds earns from qualifying purchases.
More Star Wars coverage is right here.
Header image and in-article still are from The Phantom Menace, courtesy of Lucasfilm.
