Thor: The Dark World - Natalie Portman interview

NATALIE Portman talks about reprising her role of Jane Foster in Thor: The Dark World and what she loves about working and shooting in the UK. She was speaking at a UK press conference for the film…

Q. In the first film, Jane Foster was very much a spectator and yet in this film she is right there in the middle of Thor’s world. How much was that something that excited you about coming back?
Natalie Portman: It was exciting to get to come back and work with everyone and people who were joining this time. And because Jane gets to go to Asgard this time, I was lucky enough to get to work with Tom and to have scenes with Anthony Hopkins and Renee Russo… they were amazing and I got to admire from afar. Also, continuing the fun rapport with Kat [Dennings] and Stellan [Skarsgard] and Chris – there was definitely a lot of laughing, maybe too much laughing on set!

Q. A lot of this film is shot in London, so I was wondering how different is it filming in the UK compared to Hollywood?
Natalie Portman: Well, it is hard to compare because we don’t shoot in Hollywood anymore. But I do love working here and I am envious of British actors and British crews because American and Australian actors are like gypsies moving from different cities all of the time. You can really have a fulfilling, wonderful and rich career between the theatre, TV and film in London. That would be pretty cool to live and work in the same place.

Q. The Marvel universe is getting more fantastic and more out there, so I was wondering how the actors grounded some of that to make it more palatable while staying true to the characters?
Natalie Portman: The fact that the characters – even though they are travelling through realms – they are going through things that we can all relate to. For myself, I am playing a woman where the guy didn’t call back, he disappeared, and there is this long distance thing going on and then she gets to meet the parents… those are all things that a lot of women can relate to. A lot of the issues that they were dealing with were human – even the brothers, I feel like that is so relatable.

Q. I believe your mum keeps a scrapbook that she allows out on-set. Do you wish that scrapbook would go away? Or as someone who can look at themselves on TV from the age of 10 are you not worried about your old image?
Natalie Portman: [Laughs] Yeah, I guess the funny thing is they’re the same set of photos that she always lends out for every movie I’ve done for the past 20 years. So, I’ve played a lot of characters who shouldn’t have the same experiences but do. Hopefully, they’re more background [photos] so people won’t notice [they’re the same]. But they’ve had different people photo-shopped into them.