Celebrating Israeli Icons: Natalie Portman

 

Well known as one of the brightest stars in Hollywood, Natalie Portman needs no introduction. However, her heritage as an Israeli tends to be overlooked in typical conversations about the actress. More than just a bankable starlet, Portman is a highly educated Harvard graduate, an outspoken humanitarian, and a supporter of various anti-poverty programs around the world. Portman's story is a classic example of Israeli immigrants succeeding and thriving in the US. 

Born in Israel in 1981, Portman was only a toddler when her parents immigrated to the US. Growing up in Long Island, New York, Portman showed promise from a young age, maintaining an A-average through middle-school and gaining a reputation as some of a gifted youth. Her parents saw a future of science degrees, proofs, and academics laid out in front of her. They weren't wrong, but they didn't see the full scope of her talents yet.

At the age of 11, a young Natalie was scouted by a talent agent for the makeup company Revlon who thought she would be perfect for modelling. Intrigued, Natalie gave modelling a shot but soon found it stiffing, boring, and bland. There was something vaguely insulting about being told to stand in place while photographers busied themselves, positioning her like a prop. Natalie wanted to contribute her own voice, her own ideas to the process. She wanted to act.

She'd get her chance in the Luc Besson cult classic The Professional in 1994. Debuting in a lead role in a major film alongside Jean Renault and Gary Oldman, Portman quickly established herself as a young actress to watch. She'd jump from role to role in the years to follow, becoming a larger name in the process.

For a lot of one celebrities, this is usually the part of the story where things turn dark. When you hear about the meddling stage parents, the corrupt manager, and the slow descent into the kind of Hollywood excess that has ruined countless would-be stars in the past. But, that's not Portman's story. 

While maintaining a burgeoning film career, Portman never stopped also being a normal teen. She still took class at Syosset High School in Long Island, still maintained the A-average she hadn't let slip since middle school, and still kept her feet on the ground.

And before you think this might have been favouritism or the result of expensive tutors, you should know that Portman's academic prowess took her all the way to the semifinal rounds of the Intel competition, an annual nationwide competition among the smartest minds in America's schools. Her entry, an environmentally friendly method of re-purposing waste into usable energy hinted at the social conscious that would develop as she matured.

As her career progressed, Portman sought out other challenges. Not wanting to be limited to film, Portman played the lead role in a Broadway production of The Diary of Anne Frank where she brought her own interpretation to the tragic story. The play was of special importance to the Jewish actress. Portman had read the book while she was 12 and it left a profound impact on her, helping her to understand the horrors or war, the importance of compassion, and understand what her own grandparents, who were murdered by the Nazis during the holocaust, experienced.  

This is all while still pursuing an academic track at Harvard studying psychology. She actually had to miss the gala premier event of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace because the film conflicted with her exam schedule!

From blockbuster to art film, Portman remained both a critical favourite, and a reliable box office earner. She won an both a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for her performance in the 2011 film Black Swan, and another Academy nomination for her protrayal of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy in 2016's Jackie

Outside of film though, Portman is busy promoting various social causes near and dear to her. An advocate for animal rights, Portman subscribes to a vegan diet and boasts that all her footware is from are the cheap, animal friendly kind you can buy at Target. In 2007, she would launch her own line of cruelty-free vegan shoes. 

Concerned with global poverty, Portman has become involved in a number of anti-poverty campaigns and initiatives. She was named the Ambassador of Hope for FINCA International, an organization that promotes micro-lending to help finance women-owned businesses in developing countries. The goal being to reduce poverty not through on-going aid, but by providing the women of those regions with the means to build functional businesses of their own, to establish a foundation from which to prosper. 

She also became an ambassador for the Free the Children international charity. Taking a leading role in their "Power of a Girl” campaign, Portman ran fundraisers around North America to support an all-girls schools in Kenya. The proceeds from the sales of a lipstick Portman designed with Chritian Dior were also contributed to the campaign. 

Any aspect of Portman's career would be impressive on its own. A successful academic graduating from one of the most prestigious schools in the US. A string of blockbuster films and Academy Award worthy performances. A tour on Broadway playing the lead role in one of the most important Jewish plays ever produced. A list of non-profit and humanitarian accomplishments across the globe. Any one of those would be a fine legacy, all of them together is unbelievable.

All this from a little Israeli girl who grew up in Long Island.