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Natalie Portman Says 'Star Wars' Almost Killed Her Acting Career

^Another factor is that for various reasons, child actors *very* rarely make the transition to adult actor (Portman herself being a rare exception, ironically.) So it was always unlikely that Lloyd would still be acting 10 years later, with or without Star Wars.

As for Portman: I don't buy the "she was young" premise on the basis that as anyone that's seen her debut in 'Leon' can attest, she was very talented and reasonably accomplished already.
Also, Star Wars is hardly the only poor career choice she's made over the years. Or does nobody remember when she followed up her oscar winning performance in 'Black Swan' with...'Your Highness'? Can't blame that one on George.
 
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Reverend said:
They made a comedy that wasn't very funny. You think that was deliberate?

Regardless, not the best follow-up project for an oscar winning actress.
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Your Highness was made for stoners and drunk children.

People using chemicals to make themselves a little dumber, and a lot forgetful.

It's a good market to tap, if you do it right.

Buzzed people don't want a thinking comedy.

They want Police Academy 3.

Or whatever the modern day equivalent of Police Academy 3 is, which is what someone thought that they were making.

Smart people made a comedy they thought dumb people would like.

Dumb people did not.

"The more pity that fools may not speak wisely what wise men do foolishly."

There are Academy awards for Comedies.

Good Comedies.

That don't suck, like Your Highness did.

I think her real problem is that she isn't getting any older.

Natalie has appeared to be 23 since she was 15.
 
She asked, "Ani, what's wrong?"
I always thought that was a dumb question, seeing as how she knew his mother had just died. What a mediocre movie. :rolleyes:

Kor
 
Opinions about Your Highness aside, her acting in it wasn't as awful as what Lucas forced her to do in the prequel trilogy, just like it wasn't bad in anything else she's done since or before. Lucas intentionally made her a boring, cardboard, unemotive character. That's what Padme clearly was intended to be.
 
^ I've seen lots of those persons in real life, who otherwise seem intelligent. Fictional characters shouldn't be immune to being overtaken by their own emotions.

Kor
 
The trend seems to be that if an actor had a successful career before doing Star Wars, such as Portman and McGregor, it didn't do much harm to their career. If Star Wars was the first major exposure they got, their career never recovered. Of course, it is far more nuanced than that. Also, Star Wars is hardly the only huge franchise that created these sort of problems for young actors. None of the big three from Harry Potter have done much more than smaller pictures and supporting roles since.
 
Joel_Kirk said:
Of course, Jake Lloyd and Hayden Christensen both disappeared after the prequels. Some of that can be attributed to audience backlash.
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But most of it can be attributed to their shitty acting.

And to answer the OP's (or rather Portman's) statement, "Natalie Portman Says 'Star Wars' Almost Killed Her Acting Career":
..."But it didn't."
 
TremblingBluStar said:
The trend seems to be that if an actor had a successful career before doing Star Wars, such as Portman and McGregor, it didn't do much harm to their career. If Star Wars was the first major exposure they got, their career never recovered. Of course, it is far more nuanced than that. Also, Star Wars is hardly the only huge franchise that created these sort of problems for young actors. None of the big three from Harry Potter have done much more than smaller pictures and supporting roles since.
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Daniel Radcliffe has since Harry Potter mostly worked from London. He did a pretty good run as the main character in the play Equus in the West End. He's also done quite a bit of unrated or R-rated material, in a conscious move to get away from HP. He's been working steadily since HP, but with a lower public profile than he had in his early career.
The resumes of Emma Watson and Rupert Grint aren't what I'd call full (at least not according to their IMDb pages) but both are still active in the industry.
Hayden Christensen's career was probably hurt by Star Wars, though. He hasn't done much in recent years. I thought he was pretty good in Life as a House and Shattered Glass, and he at least makes a noticeable attempt to mimic Prowse's moves in RotS, following his turn to the Dark Side but when he's still human rather than a cyborg. I'm thinking of a move where he clenches his fists and throws his arms quickly to his sides, that he does at least twice in the chambers of the Chancellor.
 
Again, Porter, Radcliffe, Watson and Grint are all arguably better actors than Christiansen to varying degrees. The movies didn't kill anyone's careers, acting abilities did. Porter's career never took a dive after Star Wars. If anything, it improved with her many appearances in movies like V for Vendetta, Black Swan (for which she won an Oscar, Golden Globe and Emmy in 2011) and her two Thor appearances. She's received a metric ass-ton of industry nominations and awards since Revenge of the Sith and starred in no less than 26 films since 2005, often several released per year. I really don't get where she's coming up with this Halle Berry attitude (another Oscar winner who attacked genre films for "ruining" her career) about Star Wars all of a sudden. Good acting chops and a reasonably well-connected agent will always win the day in Hollywood. I just gotta shake my head at all of this nonsense.
 
Like many who win the Oscar®, Natalie Portman believed that golden statuette would ensure she'd never have to star in another bad movie, ever again. Finding that wasn't the case, she's just blaming STAR WARS, because it's easy to deride ...
 
I can imagine that actors are just like everybody else who takes "gig" work - be they designers, artists, musicians, actors, or even contractors - you get stressed out between gigs, and if the going is slow and your money is drying up you try to think of why, and wonder if you will ever get a solid role again. Plus, in the Hollywood set when you are a big star you are invited to all the parties, are friends with everybody, and have the world at your feet. But if you start to falter, people just aren't all that interested in having you around. That has to be disconcerting.
So was Natalie Portman's career ever in real danger of faltering? Probably not. But it might have felt like that to her, and she never forgot that feeling and what she feels caused that feeling.
 
maneth said:
Hayden Christensen's career was probably hurt by Star Wars, though.
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It's easy to blame Star Wars for killing Christensen's career, but I don't see it that way. He was doing well enough after Revenge of the Sith that he scored the lead role in another Fox production, Jumper, which I think ultimately hurt his career the most, given it struggled to break even at the box office domestically, but made over double it's budget worldwide.
Even though I personally thought Jumper was a decent film, I can see why it was expected to be huge, given it was based on a young adult series in a time when other young adult novels, like Twilight, were box office gold. I don't blame the star. I blame studios that consider a movie a flop if it doesn't become a worldwide phenomenon.
 
TremblingBluStar said:
It's easy to blame Star Wars for killing Christensen's career, but I don't see it that way. He was doing well enough after Revenge of the Sith that he scored the lead role in another Fox production, Jumper, which I think ultimately hurt his career the most, given it struggled to break even at the box office domestically, but made over double it's budget worldwide.
Even though I personally thought Jumper was a decent film, I can see why it was expected to be huge, given it was based on a young adult series in a time when other young adult novels, like Twilight, were box office gold. I don't blame the star. I blame studios that consider a movie a flop if it doesn't become a worldwide phenomenon.
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Well, given by what you said earlier, I'd say that a movie that makes double its budget is at least a moderate success. I'll grant you that it seems to have been a mediocre success at best at the US box office.
 
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