One For Them, One For Me - Natalie Portman's 2011
Wednesday, April 20, 2022 at 8:46AM A new series by Christopher James
Do one for them; do one for you. If you can still do projects for yourself, you can keep your soul.
— Martin Scorsese: A Journey
An actor’s choices immediately after winning an Oscar says a lot about their aspirations. Winning the prize presents an actor with plenty of newfound opportunities. Some will take the opportunity to get a passion project made, while others will parlay the prize into high profile franchise roles. Since her Oscar win for Black Swan (2010), Natalie Portman has flexed her chops as a writer and director while also taking roles in auteur films, such as Pablo Larraín’s Jackie. However, immediately following Black Swan, Portman had perhaps the busiest year of her career, and the most populist. Her next three films all opened within five months of each other and represented three different genres - swoony romantic comedy, raunchy bro comedy and Marvel franchise. The one commonality: They all tested Natalie Portman’s ability to make us laugh.
How did she fare?