From her legendary role as prima ballerina in Black Swan to her countless appearances in the Star Wars franchise, Natalie Portman has never been afraid to take on a physically demanding role, and her latest big screen endeavor as Lady Thor in Marvel’s Thor: Love and Thunder proves the 41-year-old actress is not backing down from a challenge anytime soon.
Portman’s personal trainer, Naomi Pendergast told Us Weekly that in preparation for her debut as the female god of thunder, the actress trained five days a week for 10 months and never missed a single session. Pendergast revealed that the original goal was to build Portman’s arm and abdominal definition through boxing, skipping, weightlifting and core workouts, but they also had to focus on agility and stability since “Natalie had some dynamic stunt scenes that required her to move, twist and land in various positions.”
To keep up with the strenuous exercise, Portman also had to rework her vegan diet to incorporate more protein and energy-rich foods. Pendergast explained that, while filming, the actress ate a vegan breakfast of oats, berries and a protein shake, a vegan falafel dish with another protein shake for lunch, and a vegan curry dish for dinner with, of course, another protein shake. “This amount of food was obviously way more than Natalie normally eats, but it was essential for her to maintain this throughout filming to keep the muscle she had developed,” Pendergast told Us.
Despite all the work Portman put in to making sure he physique was strong and ready for the role, the actress revealed that there was one more secret for creating Lady Thor’s character that didn’t involve the gym. “They made my character much taller than I am, so that was interesting. Obviously there’s some movie magic that goes into that, but they would build decks for me on set that I would walk on and be like, Oh my God,” Portman told The Cut. “I don’t know that I’ll ever, ever be cast again as a six-foot character,” the five-foot-three star jokes.
Whether it’s training five days a week or jumping across decks all day long, Portman is surely someone we never have to worry will shy away from a difficult role. You go, Lady Thor.
