Natalie Portman Reveals How ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ Is Different From Any Movie She’s Starred In
Natalie Portman started acting at a young age. She starred in Léon: The Professional when she was barely a teenager, and Portman added movies such as Heat, Mars Attacks!, and Star Wars: The Phantom Menace to her resumé before she turned 20. The point is, she’s been in show business long enough to know how things work. The Oscar-winner who stars opposite Chris Hemsworth in Thor: Love and Thunder says it’s different from every other movie she’s worked on before in a major way.
Natalie Portman bulked up to return to the MCU in ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’
Portman and Hemsworth starred together in the first two Thor movies, but the sequel, The Dark World, had its share of detractors. Love and Thunder director Taika Waititi persuaded Portman to come back by promising to give her more freedom with her character.
Reprising her part of Jane Foster for this outing required her to bulk up to play Mighty Thor, though.
The intense weightlifting workouts took their toll on Portman to the point she dreaded them before, during, and after. The arduous regimen wasn’t necessarily enjoyable, but it left her feeling strong for the first time in her life.
Getting muscular is a departure from her normal role prep, and Portman said there’s another way Thor: Love and Thunder is different from any other movie she’s starred in.
Portman says ‘Love and Thunder’ is different because of “how much great material is not in the film”
Portman’s Jane is also the Mjölnir-wielding Mighty Thor in Love and Thunder. Having the chance to don Thor-like armor and swing the hammer is a change from her first two times in the role, but that’s not the biggest difference.
The way Portman tells it, an abundance of quality material never made it into the movie, which is far different from her experience in other films. As she told IndieWire:
“There were whole sequences, planets, characters, and worlds that didn’t end up in the movie that were hilarious and amazing and [that] we spent a lot of time and energy on, and certainly the entire crew also designing and conceiving.
“It’s just amazing how much great material is not in the film, considering how much great material is in it. Usually, it’s like, you’re just trying to get enough good stuff to put in the film, and this had overflow. So that was really surprising.”
Natalie Portman talks Thor: Love and Thunder
Where some directors truly trim all the fat to achieve a modest runtime, Portman said Waititi left some stellar material in the editing room to get Thor: Love and Thunder to its two-hour runtime.
What we know about the post-credits scenes in the latest MCU movie
Thor: Love and Thunder received a PG-13 rating and runs 1 hour, 59 minutes, per IMDb. It follows in the Marvel tradition with post-credits scenes — two of them.
No spoilers here, but both post-credit scenes involve surprise cameos. One has a Thor regular make and appearance, and the other has Ted Lasso fans excited to see.
Thor: Love and Thunder is now in theaters.
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