Natalie Portman is an Academy Award nominated and Golden Globe winning actress. Being passionate about acting, she turned down a huge opportunity to become a child model. She took on her first real role at the age of 13 and became famous by playing a princess in the Star Wars prequel trilogy.
However, despite the temptation of becoming a major movie star, she opted to attend college at Harvard. When asked about her decision to attend school when she was already rich and famous, Portman responded, “I’d rather be smart than be a movie star.” In addition to being bilingual in Hebrew and English, she has studied French, Japanese, German and Arabic.
Natalie has been in over twenty movies, on the cover of every major magazine, on every major talk show and hosted Saturday Night Live. She is considered to be absolutely beautiful, but people are always shocked by the fact that, on top of “having it all,” she still chose to put an enormous emphasis on education.
She’s one smart cookie. Natalie proves that even if you’re gorgeous, even if you’re rich and famous, to be taken seriously in life, to be truly respected, an education is essential. Her confidence and her beauty is based on who she is inside, not how many paparazzi follower her to the grocery store.
Portman uses her mind and passions to support and promote awareness of different international issues such as the current conflict in Israel as well as organizations such as NEDA.
Natalie is the poster girl for our favorite IATG saying: “Smart is the NEW Sexy!”
photo by gareth harfoot