Natalie Portman says she was asked to get 'as big as possible' for 'Thor: Love and Thunder'
- Natalie Portman told Variety she was asked to get "as big as possible" for "Thor: Love and Thunder."
- Portman reprises her role as Jane Foster, who is now a superhero, in the franchise.
Natalie Portman told Variety that she was asked to get "as big as possible" after agreeing to return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Portman is reprising her role as Jane Foster, who seems to have been given an upgrade in the upcoming Marvel movie "Thor: Love and Thunder." Instead of a damsel in distress that Thor (Chris Hemsworth) must heroically save, Jane has now taken on the mantle of Thor herself.
Portman noted during an interview with Variety that this is the first time she was asked to get large and muscular for a role in her 30-year-long career.
"On 'Black Swan,' I was asked to get as small as possible," Portman said. "Here, I was asked to get as big as possible. That's an amazing challenge — and also state of mind as a woman."
She continued: "To have this reaction and be seen as big, you realize, 'Oh, this must be so different, to walk through the world like this.' When you're small — and also, I think, because I started as a kid — a lot of times I feel young or little or, like, a pat-on-the-head kind of person. And I present myself that way, too, because of that."
This is the first Marvel film Portman has starred in since "Thor: The Dark World." She was left out of the third "Thor" sequel and unused footage from "The Dark World" was used in "Avengers Endgame" for Jane's appearance in the time-travel heist, which used some new voice-over recordings by Portman.
In 2016, Portman told Wall Street Journal that she was "done" with Marvel movies. In the 2022 interview with Variety, Portman said that the fact that she was coming back as a superhero persuaded her to return to the MCU.
"I feel like it's the phase of my career where I'm really trying to just impress my kids," she said. "My 5-year-old and my 10-year-old were so enthralled by this process, getting to visit the set and see me dressed up in a cape. It made it really cool. You know, it's very rare that my kids are like, 'Please go to work!' Usually, it's quite the opposite."
"Thor: Love and Thunder" premieres on July 8.