When you watch Thor: Love and Thunder you should probably know that there is no one more surprised to see Natalie Portman as a superhero than Portman herself. “I was especially grateful to everyone’s imagination to cast a five-three actress in a six-foot role,” she said during the global press junket for the film. “I think that takes a real leap of possibility in your mind.”
While superhero-adjacent in previous films, stepping into the costume for the first time was also something new to the actor. “After seeing Chris wear the costume for so many years, to try the [Mighty Thor] version on myself, and getting fitted for all the arm cuffs and the boots and everything was pretty surreal for the first time.”
“Tessa and Chris obviously had a lot of experience in that world, so I got to learn a lot from them,” according to Portman. Stepping into her own superhero role also gave her renewed respect for her fellow actors. “I see how much work goes into it that I don’t think I was aware of when I was just like the chick in the first one.” She even went so far as to call learning the choreography and training for Mighty Thor a “triple job of what I was doing back then.”
Portman also enjoyed the opportunity to portray a hero with relatable weaknesses, calling Mighty Thor “a female superhero that could be quite vulnerable and weak and find strength in that, and be more like a human I could relate to personally.”
Even with a greater understanding of what it takes to be a superhero, Portman knows there’s appreciates the differences between Thor and Mighty Thor. “I think he’s obviously very assured and experienced in being a superhero, and she’s just trying to figure it out.”
You can see Mighty Thor figure things out for herself in Thor: Love and Thunder, in theaters now.