Nathalie Portman Biographie P01

Early life:

Portman was born in Jerusalem, Israel. Her father, Avner Hershlag, is an Israeli medical doctor specializing in the research and treatment of human fertility and reproduction. Her mother, Shelley Stevens, is a Jewish American homemaker who now works as her agent. Portman's father's family members are descendants of Jewish immigrants from Poland and Romania, while her mother's family members were Jewish immigrants from Austria and Russia; her paternal grandfather's parents died in Auschwitz and her Romanian-born great-grandmother was a spy for the British during World War II.

Portman's parents met at a Jewish student center at the Ohio State University, where Portman's mother was selling tickets. Portman's father returned to Israel, but the two corresponded and were married when Portman's mother visited Israel a few years later. When Portman was three years old, her family moved from Israel to her mother's native United States, where her father pursued his medical training. The family lived in Washington, D.C. in 1984 (she attended the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School), and then Connecticut in 1988, before finally settling down in Syosset, New York in 1990.

Portman has said that although she "really loves the States, her heart's in Jerusalem. That's where I feel at home." Portman is an only child and very close to her parents, who are often seen with her at her film premieres. Her mother always accompanied pre-adult Portman to filming locations.

Early Career:

Portman started taking dancing lessons at the age of four, performed in local troupes, and dreamed of dancing on Broadway. At the age of 12 Portman was discovered in a pizza parlor by an agent for Revlon, who offered her an opportunity to model. She asked to be introduced to acting talent scouts, and took "Portman", her grandmother's maiden name, as her professional stage surname.

Starting at age 13, Portman spent her school holidays attending upscale theater camps Stagedoor Manor and Usdan Camp, where she fell in love with acting, playing roles in camp productions such as the title character in Anne of Green Gables, Dream Laurey in Oklahoma!, and Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream. In 1993 Portman obtained her first professional role, as an understudy for the off-Broadway musical Ruthless!

Her inaugural experience in professional theater led her to audition for Luc Besson's 1994 film Léon (aka The Professional). She was initially turned down for the role due to her youth, but through further auditioning won the part. Soon after getting the part, she took Portman as her stage name in the interest of privacy. In the film, Portman plays an orphaned girl who befriends a much older man who is an assassin. Léon opened on November 18, 1994, and marked her feature film debut at age 12. That same year she appeared in the short film Developing, which aired on television.

In 1996, to Portman's surprise, the casting director for the new Star Wars films, Robin Gurland, contacted her to see if she was interested in playing the female lead in the new films. Portman, still only 14 years old at the time, and having never seen the original three Star Wars films, was speculative at first about the commitment she was making and what impact it would have on her life, as the role would ultimately see her participate in three films over the course of a decade. After meeting with George Lucas and producer Rick McCallum, she signed on to the prequel trilogy. Portman then auditioned for the role of Anne Frank in the Broadway revival of The Diary of Anne Frank. The decision to participate in this production caused her to pull out of the film The Horse Whisperer. She turned down the title role in Adrian Lyne's Lolita (1997), due to her feelings about young actresses being exposed to sex in films. In mid-1997, production began on the first of the three Star Wars prequel films, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.