The baton has been passed from one generation to the next. Last month saw the true emergence of a new Hollywood leading lady. A powerhouse of emotion, intelligence, and beauty; all wrapped in expertly honed craft. Natalie Portman deservedly swept the Best Actress category at nearly every major film awards for her portrayal of Nina Sayers in last year’s Black Swan. Directed by Darren Aronofksy, Portman delivered a mesmerising performance despite the petty back and forth over whether she performed all her own ballet work. Not too long after winning her award, one of the Grand Dames of acting, Elizabeth Taylor passed away. Taylor’s work, beauty, and spirit literally wrote the book on how to be a movie star. That book was written by William J. Mann and was called How to Be a Movie Star: Elizabeth Taylor in Hollywood.
If you believe in synchronicity, these two actresses are linked in space and time. Bear with me here and I’ll show you how Natalie Portman is actually the only actress in Hollywood capable of filling Taylor’s high heels on the silver screen - hopefully without the personal dramas.
Most will recall that Taylor’s breakthrough came when she was just twelve years old, starring as Velvet Brown in Clarence Brown’s 1944 film National Velvet. Velvet famously trains a horse to compete in the Grand National Steeplechase, and when the jockey doesn’t believe he can win, she takes the reins and nabs the victory. Portman found breakout success at the age of 13, ironically almost exactly a half-century later playing a young girl who befriends a hitman in Luc Besson’s 1994 film Léon (aka The Professional). Both films were announcements to the world that new talent had arrived on the stage.
At the age of 17, Taylor was cast as Angela Vickers, a spoiled socialite opposite Montgomery Clift’s George Eastman in 1951’s A Place In The Sun. For the film to work (and it does), Taylor had to convey why Clift’s character would give up a relationship with his pregnant girlfriend, played by Shelly Winters. According to biographer Kitty Kelley, Hollywood columnist Hedda Hopper was allowed on set to watch the filming, and became "wide-eyed watching the little girl from National Velvet seduce Montgomery Clift in front of the camera.” When the scene was over, Hopper asked her, "Elizabeth, where on earth did you ever learn how to make love like that?"
In between her stints in the Star Wars prequels, the 23 year old Portman, playing a girl of 20, co-starred with acting powerhouses Jude Law, Julia Roberts, and Clive Owen in Closer. This Mike Nichols film is an intense twisted tale of love, lies, adultery, and betrayal. Playing Alice, an American stripper working in London, Portman’s sexuality tears through the celluloid and enraptures both Owen and Law’s characters. In one particularly intense scene, Clive Owen’s character Larry is paying Alice for a private dance, during which he asks, “Alice, tell me something true…” She replies, “Lying is the most fun a girl can have without taking her clothes off… but it’s better if you do.” Being able to pull that line, and scene, off with complete and total honesty and vulnerability is a skill that we were just realising about Natalie Portman.
In her lifetime, Elizabeth Taylor worked with some of Hollywood’s best: Rock Hudson and James Dean in 1956’s Giant, and then was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress four years in a row for Raintree County opposite Montgomery Clift; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof with Paul Newman; Suddenly, Last Summer again with Montgomery Clift (and Katharine Hepburn); and finally winning for Butterfield 8 in 1960. Perhaps Taylor’s best known film was the one that made her the highest paid actress at the time: the lead in 1963’s Cleopatra. Her gorgeous violet eyes never looked better. It should also be noted that Taylor received a second Academy Award, also for Best Actress in a Leading Role, for her performance as Martha in 1966’s Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? also with then husband Richard Burton.
As of 2011, at the ripe old age of 30, Natalie Portman has worked with some of the biggest names in acting. She co-starred in all three aforementioned Star Wars prequels, been an indie goddess in Garden State, played alongside Hugo Weaving in 2006’s V for Vendetta, delivered an outstanding performance in 2008’s The Other Boleyn Girl, as Anne Boleyn, co-starring Eric Bana and Scarlett Johansson, and also that same year she was the youngest member of the 61st Annual Cannes Film Festival jury.
Of all the synchronistic events between these two women, the most interesting happened in 1994. In her last theatrical film, Elizabeth Taylor played the forgettable character of Pearl Slaghoople in the live action version of The Flinstones. That same year, if you recall from above, was the year of Portman’s first theatrical release: Léon (aka The Professional). Does it get any more interesting and appropriate than that?
There was never a debate regarding Elizabeth Taylor being the Last Great Hollywood Actress. And up until now, one could say that perhaps Meryl Streep or maybe Jodie Foster would be able to wear that shining tiara moving forward. All things considered, and especially after Black Swan, there can be no doubt; Natalie Portman, born nearly 50 years on, will no doubt succeed Taylor as a powerhouse of cinematic excellence.
*As an additional sidenote for film trivia buffs: director Mike Nichols is the only director to have worked with both Elizabeth Taylor (Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?) and Natalie Portman (Closer). The films were made 38 years apart.