Natalie Portman has been working steadily in Hollywood since she was 11 years-old—a two-decade time period during which she not only managed to accumulate over 30 film credits and an Oscar, but a degree from Harvard in between jobs. At the time she enrolled at the Ivy League university to study psychology, Portman told press, “I don't care if [college] ruins my career. . .I’d rather be smart than a movie star.” So it would not have particularly surprised anyone if Portman, the daughter of two academics, veered in a different career direction post-college. But in a new interview, to promote her new film Jackie, which is already garnering her Oscar buzz, Portman explains how she ultimately came to choose Hollywood over academia, and why her dad tried to persuade her otherwise.
“I came from such a serious, academic family, where the only thing
that was acceptable was to be very literate and educated—you become a
professor or a doctor or a lawyer,” Portman told Variety. “My dad pulled me
aside when I was 25 and was like, ‘I think it’s time for you to go to law
school or grad school.’ Not that he was saying that acting was bad, but more
that he was like, ‘I think you’ll be more fulfilled if you have something
more—like a life of the mind.’”
Portman confesses she was conflicted how to proceed
professionally as well. Ultimately though, she says, “It took me a while,
coming from that background [as a child actor before realizing], ‘This is
what I want, and this is what I love. I enjoy this.’”
During a
2011 interview with The Harvard Crimson, though, Portman’s former professor
Alan M. Dershowitz revealed that the actress spoke to him about using her
psychology degree in her acting career, successfully melding both film and
her college studies.
“We talked a lot about her career,” said Dershowitz, who hired
Portman as a research assistant after she earned an A+ on a paper in his
class. “She said she wanted to do acting, and she wanted at some point to be
a psychologist.”
“She has choices and options,” he continued.
“She would be a great psychologist, and she’s a great actor. She probably
influences more people in her acting.”
“Her psychology background helped her in formulating the role
for [Black Swan],” he revealed. “She’s an actor who uses her academic
background.”
Indeed, while speaking to Vanity Fair earlier this
year, Portman explained how she studied “obsessively” before taking on the
role of Jackie Kennedy in the new biopic.
