Natalie Portman Kept Messing up Her Lines in ‘Thor: The Dark World’ Because of Anthony Hopkins
It was a dream for Natalie Portman to work alongside her Marvel co-star Anthony Hopkins. But it occasionally proved disastrous for her performance.
How Anthony Hopkins got involved in ‘Thor’
Hopkins is mostly known for dramatic work in the film industry that has earned him much praise and numerous accolades. In 2011, audiences saw the Oscar-winner dabble in the superhero genre. There, he lent his talents to the Marvel movie Thor as the titular character’s father Odin.
What initially attracted Hopkins to the film wasn’t the material, however. Hopkins just wanted the opportunity to work alongside filmmaker Kenneth Branagh, who directed the film.
“It’s Ken Branagh, basically. If they gave me enough money to read the phone book, I’d do it. See, I live in a total state of non-expectation,” Hopkins once said according to Pop Entertainment.
For Hopkins, being in Thor was the culmination of a few changes that happened in the actor’s life around that time.
“I had come back from a movie with Woody Allen [You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger], which was a big surprise. I enjoyed that. Then I had an agent and I left them, because I wasn’t very happy. I got a new agent, and within two days they said, ‘Would you like to meet Ken Branagh?’ and I said, ‘Yeah. What about?’ He said, ‘Odin.’ I said, ‘Oh, that’s a god, isn’t it?’ He says, ‘Yeah.'”
After an eventful meeting, Hopkins simply accepted the part of Odin after Branagh offered it to him
Natalie Portman kept messing up her lines in ‘Thor: The Dark World’ because of Anthony Hopkins
Because of his contributions to the film industry, many actors and fans admire Hopkins and his work. Including Portman, who had the chance to share some screen-time with her acting idol in Thor: The Dark World. But her admiration for the actor once became so overwhelming that it interfered with her performance in the sequel.
“I was completely intimidated,” Portman once said in an interview with The Telegraph. “I kept messing up lines around him because I was so nervous, and he was so sweet about it. He made me feel at ease. He’d be like, ‘That’s a really hard line to say,’ and I’d be like, ‘No, I just can’t get it out.’ Your jaw drops on the floor watching him he’s just… Man.”
In a resurfaced interview with Static Multimedia (via Comic Book Movie), Portman even confided that she forgot to perform with Hopkins around.
“You just sit there and try to remind yourself to act because he’s just like, you are jaw dropped on the floor watching him,” she said.
Anthony Hopkins was indifferent towards acting before ‘Thor’
Hopkins shared that he’d become a bit complacent with the art of acting by the time Thor came around. But the Marvel movie, and the people he’d collaborated with, helped reinvigorate Hopkins’ passion for the film industry.
“I’d gone through a patch where I was getting very indifferent to everything, and I could care less about anything. Then to work with Ken, he just pushed the right buttons to get me to give of my best. I really value that in him, because I’d gotten lazy. He’s one of the best directors I’ve worked with, and so that was the principle reason,” Hopkins said.
Thanks to his on-set experience, Hopkins once felt Thor was the most he’d enjoyed acting in years.
