The latest of all the roles the American actress of Jewish origin has taken on is her first collaboration with Guy Ritchie as one of the leads in The Fountain of Eternal Youth, which premieres today on Apple TV+ and is nothing more, nor less, than the very essence of the British filmmaker. Although the script is penned by James Vanderbilt -author of Heat, in which a teenage Natalie Portman also starred-, the two hours of continuous action, with constant comedy bits, mainly carried by John Krasinski, are the essence of the British director. And in between, a tumultuous relationship between the two brothers played by the lead of The Office and Portman. Their goal? To find the fountain of eternal youth at the request of the magnate played by Domhnall Gleeson and despite the opposition of a group of treasure hunters, among whom the Mexican Eiza González stands out. A big-budget production filmed in Bangkok, Vienna, Luxor, and Liverpool. From the Egyptian pyramids to the streets of Thailand passing through the Museum of Art History in the Austrian capital. And the frenetic pace as the common thread.
"For me, this film has been very different because everything I had done on this scale had a lot of computer animation, and yet, in this case, everything happened in real places with real people," says Portman during a virtual meeting. And she focuses on the escape through the streets of Liverpool that she and Krasinski embark on in a convertible after stealing a piece from one of the city's museums. "It was very exciting to be part of this, to do these stunt sequences inside that car. I felt like I was really driving, even though of course I was in the passenger seat. It was truly terrifying; we were spinning around the curves in the middle of that chase. But at the same time, it was thrilling to experience it."
Despite that action, and the one that comes as the film progresses with its frenetic pace, Guy Ritchie remains true to another of his classics. The wardrobe plays a central role in the plot. Natalie Portman can be in the middle of a heist, a dive in the ocean, or an adventure through the pyramids, and not a single garment is out of place. "It's very typical of Guy for the wardrobe to be amazing, but he himself appears dressed as a character from the movie. My favorite moment is that he wouldn't wear the vest when we were shooting scenes in the water until they made him one. I remember it was houndstooth or something similar to match his outfit," details the actress, who also confesses that she ended up taking one of the ties and one of the scarves worn by her co-star from the set. "I should have stolen the brown corduroy suit they made for me for the photoshoot because it was tailored for me. Getting to this level of detail is something that only happens once in a lifetime, you will never look better than in a Guy Ritchie film," adds John Krasinski, one of the four actors present during this virtual promotion of the movie.
Precisely that ensemble, as they themselves claim, was one of the keys for everything to fit during filming. And at the center, as the veteran who holds it all together, her colleagues point to Natalie Portman. "She was really fun all the time, during the five months we shared filming, traveling, swimming in icy waters... She is one of the smartest people I have ever met in my life, in addition to showing interest in everything around her. I don't think many people are like that," says Krasinski. "Definitely, it's surreal to share a set with her, she always remains balanced. She is someone who never feels jaded, is incredibly profound, and working with her exceeded all the expectations I had because I was a big fan of hers as a child," adds Eiza González. And in the same vein, Domhnall Gleeson concludes: "After all they have said, I will only add for the record that I am a huge fan of Natalie. Eiza and I seem like the presidents of her fan club."
But not everything is speed and action in this version of The Fountain of Eternal Youth that Ritchie has put together. At the core of the myth lies one of the great debates of our time, which does not go unnoticed by the British director: the obsession with youth, the consequences that someone is willing to pay for it to be enduring and even eternal. A debate that especially refers to the female gender, where cosmetic surgery procedures have skyrocketed in recent years among the younger population. According to data from the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS), between 30% and 40% of cosmetic surgery patients are under 30 years old. "Eternal youth has become an obsession for our society," begins Natalia Portman. And she continues: "I think this film also addresses the metaphor that we must seek that sense of wonder we have when we are young, that passion, that curiosity, and that adventurous spirit. I like to think that this external quest in surgeries is actually a misguided internal search, and what we really want is to feel young again, to feel that excitement, that passion... But we approach it from an aesthetic point of view."
This comes from someone who, especially in the early days of her career, was subjected to beauty standards and also to a sexualization that prevented her from developing in that aspect in her personal life during her youth. She confessed this herself at the end of 2020 on the podcast Armchair Expert, hosted by comedian Dax Shepard. Because it must be remembered that at just 13 years old, Portman starred in Beautiful Girls, that kind of romantic comedy where her neighbor falls madly in love with her when she returns home for a high school reunion. That neighbor was Timothy Hutton, who in real life was 21 years older than her and in the movie, he appeared 16 years older. Just a year later, the actress was also part of the cast of Heat, where she played a girl who dies in the middle of Michael Mann's thriller. That situation caused her trauma that led her to self-harm on one occasion, as she revealed in a 2009 interview with the Los Angeles Times. And yet, acting has continued to be her method of expression and life for over 30 years. "I definitely thought that by this age I would have retired. When I was younger, I thought that by 35 I would have quit. But I still enjoy this, it's a surprise how fun, exciting, interesting, and meaningful making movies still is for me," says the actress who graduated in Psychology from Harvard University in the early 2000s and, already a movie star, worked as a research assistant for Alan Dershowitz in a lab in that field.
"The opportunity to create with other people is enormously magical for me. I mean, having a group of people creating something together with the vision led by a director. It's like an orchestra where the sound is truly extraordinary. I haven't found anything else that compares in terms of creative expression. So I feel very fortunate to still be an actress," says Portman, who, apart from her work as an actress, is also the owner of the women's soccer team Angel City FC. The club was founded in 2020, began competing in the top American competition in 2022, and among its owners also includes tennis player Serena Williams, YouTubers Lilly Singh and Casey Neistat, and some former players from the US Women's National Team, such as Mia Hamm, Lauren Holiday, or Abby Wambach. "This has truly been an adventure, it has been unexpected but very significant in my life. Women's soccer is an incredibly cultural transformer. For boys and girls, seeing virtuous athletes as heroines is really important. Just for that, I can say that it is one of the most wonderful experiences of my life."
Because not only is Natalie Portman's film career inexplicably complex, but everything surrounding her is as well. And she is too.