Natalie Portman Felt Like the New Girl

Natalie Portman is opening up about her time on the set of Thor: Love and Thunder. With nearly a decade passing since the last time Portman starred in a Thor movie, she told Vogue Australia that she felt like “kind of the new kid.”

The Star Wars actress said it was “incredible” and “surreal” to return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but that she had to “figure out how to fit in” again.

Portman continued, commenting on her costars Chris Hemsworth, Tessa Thompson, and Taika Waititi’s relationships with one another: “Because Chris and Tessa and Taika had worked together on ‘Ragnarok,’ and so successfully and so it was like they were all reuniting and I was this newbie in there trying to figure out how to fit in,” she said.

She added, “But also they’re just the nicest people, and also I know Chris and Tessa so well from previous work together, and also I had done ‘Thor’ movies twice before. So there was a lot of familiarity and comfort in that world too, but it was this weird mix of being the veteran and the newbie at the same time. I was there at the beginning. But at the same time, you’re the outsider to this group.”