For Natalie Portman, psychology and acting are very similar

‘Black Swan’ actress Natalie Portman believes that acting and Psychology are “very similar”. The actress took a break from her career to pursue a degree in Psychology from Harvard University. She thinks it helped her work because doing both successfully involves being “observant”, reports Female First UK. Asked if her degree has been useful in her work, she told Radio Times magazine: “I think it’s very similar — in acting you’re trying to imagine why people do the things they do and what forms them. Psychology is very much the same practice. The first thing they teach is observing — it’s watching people, noticing patterns, behaviour.”

As per Female First UK, in ‘May December’, Natalie plays Elizabeth, an actress preparing to play a real-life figure and she admitted playing someone based on a real person can feel “vampiric”, even when she is trying to be empathetic.

She said: “That’s a classic trope of literature and theatre. You read Chekhov, and he’s questioning whether storytelling is stealing from people’s lives. “I think every artist with a heart and soul questions themselves.” She added, “Am I stealing from real people to feed my art — like a vampire? It can be vampiric, but I think you can approach it in a way that’s more generous, more about empathy and trying to imagine someone’s life, as opposed to trying to steal someone’s life”. The 42-year-old actress made her movie debut in ‘Leon’ when she was 12 and had her first Broadway role four years later in ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ and she enjoys working on stage and screen in different ways.

She said: “They’re both different in their own ways – it’s pottery and painting. I had an amazing experience on ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’. It really changed my whole life and changed me as a person. But film is also satisfying to work in. You reach wider audiences.”

Portman began her acting career at age twelve, when she starred as the young protégée of a hitman in the action film Léon: The Professional (1994). While in high school, she made her Broadway debut in a 1998 production of The Diary of a Young Girl and gained international recognition for starring as Padmé Amidala in Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace (1999). From 1999 to 2003, Portman attended Harvard University, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. She reduced her number of acting roles, but continued to act in the Star Wars prequel trilogy (2002, 2005) and in The Public Theater’s 2001 revival of Anton Chekhov’s play The Seagull.

In 2004, Portman was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and won a Golden Globe for playing a mysterious stripper in the romantic drama Closer. Portman’s career further advanced with her starring roles as Evey Hammond in V for Vendetta (2005), Anne Boleyn in The Other Boleyn Girl (2008), and a troubled ballerina in the psychological thriller Black Swan (2010), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. She starred in the romantic comedy No Strings Attached (2011) and portrayed Jacqueline Kennedy in the biopic Jackie (2016), which earned her a third Academy Award nomination. Portman has also featured as Jane Foster in the Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero films Thor (2011), Thor: The Dark World (2013), and Thor: Love and Thunder (2022), which established her as one of the world’s highest-paid actresses. Co-founding the production company MountainA in 2021, Portman produced and starred in the drama May December (2023).

Portman’s directorial ventures include the short film Eve (2008) and the biographical drama A Tale of Love and Darkness (2015). She is vocal about the politics of the United States and Israel, and is an advocate for animal rights and environmental causes. She is married to dancer and choreographer Benjamin Millepied, with whom she has two children.

Agencies