Natalie Portman was 'bummed' out by the poor response to 'Star Wars' prequels

Natalie Portman has opened up about the poor critical response to the Star Wars prequels, in which she played Padme Amidala across the trilogy.

“It was hard. It was a bummer because it felt like people were so excited about new ones and then to have people feel disappointed. Also to be at an age that I didn’t really understand that’s kind of the nature of the beast. When something has that much anticipation it can almost only disappoint.”

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Portman was cast to play Amidala back in 1997 at the age of just 15, with The Phantom Menace eventually being released in May, 1999, to a tepid critical response.

The film still managed to gross over £780 million worldwide, while Portman reprised her role in 2002’s Attack Of The Clones and 2005’s Revenge Of The Sith, which grossed a combined total of over £1.1 billion, but were met with just as disappointing reviews.

But Portman told Empire that, in her opinion, time has been much kinder to the prequel trilogy.

“With the perspective of time, it’s been re-evaluated by a lot of people who actually really love them now. There’s a very avid group of people who think they’re the best ones now! I don’t have enough perspective to weigh in.”

But while Portman might have been disappointed by the poor reviews for the Star Wars prequels they certainly played their role in making her one of the most popular actresses of the last 20 years.

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Not only did she pick up a Best Actress Oscar for her performance in Black Swan, but she was also a member of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, playing Jane Foster in Thor and Thor: The Dark World. She also popped up in Avengers: Endgame, too, however the directors of the film, The Russo Brothers, have now revealed that she didn’t actually film any new scenes for it.

“All she did new for this movie was —” started Anthony, before Joe added, “The voice.” Anthony then told EW, “A little bit of voice-over when she’s talking in the distance, that’s it.”