She hesitantly shot an explicit nude scene for Closer (2004/I), in the scene where Alice (Portman) strips for Larry (Clive Owen). Ultimately, Portman and director Mike Nichols agreed not to use it, as the scene was effective enough without it.
Shaved her head for V for Vendetta (2005).
Learned to speak with a British accent for V for Vendetta (2005).
Still takes ballet classes.
Is learning how to play the piano and conduct for Goya"s Ghosts (2006).
Named #42 on the Maxim magazine Hot 100 of 2005 list.
Named #49 in FHM"s "100 Sexiest Women in the World 2005" special supplement. (2005)
Says her performances in Everyone Says I Love You (1996) is her worst. Her failure, she believes, is her inability to improvise.
Several months after shaving her head, she was traveling through Ireland and stopped for directions at a bed and breakfast. The owners refused to allow her even onto their porch. They did, however, give her directions.
Voted Peta"s Sexiest Female Vegetarian in 2002.
A radio station once had a contest to find out where she went to school; Backstreet Boys tickets were the prizes.
Her mother is American (the daughter of one Russian parent, one Austrian) and her father is Israeli (son of a Polish father).
In 1999, magazines reported that Portman started a new trend--wearing logo T- shirts--when they snapped photos of her at her 18th birthday wearing a snug Nesquik shirt. (However, logo T-shirts had already been popular for at least a decade before that.) She had borrowed the shirt from her best friend"s eight-year-old brother; he was appalled.
In 2005, she spent a few months in Madrid partying with Javier Bardem and friends. She was mostly unrecognizable to fans because of her Mohawk.
Occasionally shelters dogs.
Once during an interview, she offered a metaphor for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the David Hare play "Via Dolorosa." It"s about a man who jumps out of a burning building and lands on a passerby, breaking the passerby"s leg. The passerby says, "You broke my leg," and the man breaks his other leg to shut him up.
Said that it was while working on The Seagull (2001) that she became aware that acting is much more about the process than the product. Most helpful was when she would peek over Philip Seymour Hoffman"s shoulder at the notebook he kept in which he wrote questions and then answers about his character"s feelings.
She became the first client of Artists Management Group to land representation at the powerhouse Creative Artists Agency. CAA refused to work with clients of its former founder Michael Ovitz"s AMG; as soon as the one-time super-agent sold out his interest in the management firm, CAA went straight after Portman.
Was surprised and amused to discover that her apartment in the heart of Kings Cross, London, was across the street from a brothel.
Took diving courses in Eilat, Israel. Diving is one of her favorite hobbies.
For her 2003 New Year"s party, she wore a Zac Posen dress that had more than $10,000 worth of crystals sewn onto it. She also attended Moby"s much-hyped secret Naked NYE party.
As the first day of Cold Mountain (2003) filming fell on Halloween, Portman came to set dressed as Dorothy Gale only to realize she was the only one who"d dressed up.
Her years at Harvard resulted in the phenomenon of The Natalies, in which every underclasswoman with that first name received numerous e-mails and phone messages from fans.
When she arrived at a London airport to do re-shoots for the third Star Wars prequel, a customs official--going by her size--asked Natalie if she was traveling with a guardian.
Is a close friend and well-known customer of Zac Posen.
Mike Nichols and his wife, Diane Sawyer, have been friends with Natalie since she was 15.
Is friends with Jeanine Lobell, founder of Stila cosmetics, and her husband, actor Anthony Edwards.
She is friends with young writer Jonathan Safran Foer.
Has been friends with American designer Isaac Mizrahi since she was 14.
Attended a soccer game in Madrid with Stellan Skarsg?rd. Afterwards, the team gave her her own jersey.
While in northern Iraq in 2004, the 1st Battalion 5th Infantry hung a giant poster of her in their command hanger after discovering that most of the men in the unit were big fans.
Family friend of Audrey Hepburn.
Was considered for the role of Jane Austen in Becoming Jane (2007), but the role went to Anne Hathaway.
Her parents met as OSU (Ohio State university) in Columbus, Ohio.
Shelley, her mother, was born on June 9, 1952, and was raised in Cinncinati, Ohio.
Has a slight indentation on her head that was visible during the time she her head shaved. The indentation was the result of being delivered by vacuum extraction.