Natalie Portman's Birthday
On June 9, 1981 in Jerusalem, in the family of gynecologist Avner Hershlag and his wife Shelley (nee Stevens), a daughter, Neta-Lee, was born. Three years after the birth of Neta-Lee, the Hershlag family moved from Israel to the United States. In New York, Neta-Lee Hershlag first began her studies at Solomon Schlechter's Jewish Elementary School, and then continued her studies at Siosset High School, whose alumni are many prominent US citizens.
At the age of 11, Neta-Lee Hershlag caught the eye of an agent of the cosmetics company Revlon. He suggested that the girl become the face of the company's children's cosmetics line. The precocious Neta-Lee replied that she was not interested in a career as a model, but she would very much like to become an actress. The agent informed her about the ongoing casting for the role of Mathilda in Luc Besson's film "Leon" and advised her to take part in it. Neta-Lee followed the agent's advice and ... surpassed 2,000 other applicants. Among them was, for example, Liv Tyler. Liv, at the age of 15, seemed a little old for the role of Mathilda.
And Neta-Lee Hershlag, playing the role of Mathilda in the film by Luc Besson, became famous all over the world at the age of 13. True, the world recognized her under the name Natalie Portman. The girl took a stage name for herself, but not for marketing reasons, but, on the contrary, for the sake of protecting her family from unnecessary press attention. In addition, Shelley Hershlag, who was present on all the filming in which her daughter took part, later recalled that some scenes had such a strong sexual overtones that she literally had to cringe as she watched it all.
Neta-Lee changed her name to the more common and familiar "Natalie". As for the surname, she didn't invent it, but took it from her heroic great-grandmother, who had Jewish-Romanian-Russian-Austrian roots and served as a British intelligence operative during the Second World War.
After the release of the film "Leon", Natalie Portman received a flurry of offers from filmmakers and film producers. It cannot be said that Natalie refused everything, but she was very selective about the proposals. On the move, she rejected proposals containing explicit scenes. Sometimes filmmakers went to change the script, just to get Natalie Portman to agree to film.
Natalie Portman's active work in the cinema did not prevent her from achieving noticeable success in her studies. In 1999, she graduated with honors from the prestigious Siosset School, and, while still a schoolgirl, at the age of 17, she co-authored two scientists in writing a scientific paper entitled "A Simple Method to Demonstrate the Enzymatic Production of Hydrogen from Sugar". This work was submitted to the competition "Science Talent Search", held by the world-famous company Intel. In this competition, Natalie Portman reached the semifinals.
After graduating from Sisset's school, Natalie Portman entered one of the most prestigious in the United States, Harvard University, from which she graduated with a bachelor's degree in psychology. In addition to psychology, Natalie, in addition to Hebrew and English, which she had mastered since childhood thanks to her bilingual family, learned French, Arabic, Japanese and German.
For her 40th birthday, Natalie Portman has in her portfolio roles in 44 full-length feature films, of which 4 entered the Golden Thousand. Thanks to this indicator and her dazzling beauty, she is included in the list of the 100 most beautiful and sexy Actresses in world cinema, compiled by FilmGourmand.
To date, Natalie Portman's acting career has been awarded 94 film awards, including such prestigious awards as the Academy Award, two Golden Globes, and the British BAFTA Award.
As usual, in honor of the anniversary of the wonderful Actress, we offer frames from the best films with her participation to the attention of her fans.
