Taika Waititi Asked Natalie Portman to Be in His Star Wars Movie... Because the Prequel Trilogy Was That Forgettable
Trust Taika Waititi to deliver the very best of entertainment, both on and off the screen. The eccentric director from New Zealand is stunning Marvel fans around the world with the bombastic fourth Thor film, Thor: Love and Thunder. But off the screen, he’s giving Disney’s PR team migraines with all his uncensored and hilarious interviews.
The latest from Taika Waititi: He forgot Natalia Portman was in the Star Wars prequel series. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Waititi candidly shared how he once tried to cast Natalia Portman in his upcoming Star Wars project, completely forgetting that she played a major character, Padme Amidala, in the prequel trilogy.
“Natalie said to me, what do you do next? And I said ‘I’m trying to work on a Star Wars thing. Have you ever wanted to be in a Star Wars movie?’ She said, ‘I’ve been in Star Wars movies,’” joked Taika. “I forgot about those ones.”
Until Obi-Wan Kenobi was released, so did we. It’s a running joke that the Star Wars fans like to pretend the prequel trilogy doesn’t exist, but it looks like Taika took it to heart.
On another hilarious note, Taika shared the real story of how Marvel got Natalie Portman to return to the billion-dollar franchise. It wasn’t some attachment to the character of Jane Foster or love for the franchise. Hard truth? It was the money.
“Basically I was like, a lot of fans miss Jane Foster, and people want to see her again. It just seemed like the perfect opportunity, because the character was so great in the Jason Aaron run of Thor. Kevin [Feige] was already like, ‘I’d love to try and figure out a way to bring Mighty Thor into this film and bring Natalie back,’” shared Taikwa.
“It didn’t take much convincing. She had never heard of that run of the comic, so I just dropped off some comics for her…. Anytime you ask, how did we cast so-and-so? We offered them millions of dollars and they said yes!”
Oh, Hollywood. Never change.
Thor: Love And Thunder is now showing in cinemas nationwide.
