It's a great week to be Natalie Portman. The diminutive star won the Golden Globe last Sunday for her role as a tormented ballerina in Black Swan, which is playing gangbusters at the box office. Now Portman's new movie, the romcom No Strings Attached with Ashton Kutcher, just opened at the top of the US charts on an estimated $20.3m.
Portman's gifts have never been in doubt, but the Globes success makes her a bona fide A-lister. A likely Academy award lead actress nomination today will only bolster Hollywood's belief that she is highly bankable. And she has range, as evidenced by a slew of movies coming out this year.
She'll be seen in David Gordon Green's goofy comedy Your Highness and plays the love interest in Marvel Studios' big summer release Thor. Portman has two arthouse movies coming out in 2011, too: the weird drama Hesher, which premiered at Sundance last year and is an acquired taste to say the least, and comedy drama The Other Woman.
Portman's star-making turn in Black Swan was a long time in the works. Darren Aronofsky initially approached her about the idea 10 years ago, but you know how these things go. Other projects came along and the usual financing challenges that beset the independent sector put Black Swan on a rocky road.
Critical acclaim for Aronofsky's 2008 Venice Golden Lion winner The Wrestler moved things along and made him a more attractive proposition. With the support and tenacity of longtime producer Mike Medavoy and a newish financier called Cross Creek Pictures, the movie finally came together in late 2009.
Portman told me recently how she slaved away for the role and subjected herself to a gruelling regime for more than a year. The daily ballet training was demanding and reminds me of Mark Wahlberg's preparations for The Fighter. He built a full-size boxing gym on his property, as you do, and trained every day for more than four years in the hope that the movie would get made.
On the set of Black Swan, Portman suffered concussion and a broken rib. The Academy loves to know that actors are dragging themselves through hell for a role and that's another reason why she's the one to beat at the Oscars on 27 February. She's also in the running for the Screen Actors Guild top prize on 30 January.
North American top 10, 21-23 January 2011
1. No Strings Attached, $20.2m
2. The Green Hornet, $18.1m. Total: $63.4m
3. The Dilemma, $9.7m. Total: $33.4m
4. The King's Speech, $9.2m. Total: $58.6m
5. True Grit, $8m. Total: $138.6m
6. Black Swan, $6.2m. Total: $83.6m
7. The Fighter, $4.5m Total: $73m
8. Little Fockers, $4.1m. Total: $141.2m
9. Yogi Bear, $5.3m. Total: $88.9m
10. Tron: Legacy, $3.7m. Total: $163.3m
