Natalie Portman on Getting in ‘Thor’ Shape and What Her Kids Think

Natalie Portman is back in the MCU as Jane Foster in “Thor: Love and Thunder,” but she gets to play a superhero this time around, as Jane becomes Mighty Thor!

“Extra’s” Jenn Lahmers spoke with Natalie about how she got in superhero shape and the advice she received from co-stars Tessa Thompson and Chris Hemsworth.

Of her physical transformation, Natalie shared, “It was really exciting to obviously have the opportunity to play a superhero and given that task of becoming a 6’ character as a 5’3” woman, which is, you know, a combination of me working hard and also a lot of movie magic.”

“I think women, you know, we're usually asked to get as small as possible and you know almost disappear and to be asked to, like, get as big as possible, like, eat as much as you can, lift as much as you can,” Natalie noted about the “once-in-a-lifetime kind of request.”

Portman, who is vegan, revealed that she drank “vegan protein shakes” and “lentils.”

Natalie didn’t have any cheat days, saying, “It was good to eat as much as possible,” but she said  didn’t have “dessert at every meal.”

Natalie received advice from Tessa and Chris, saying, “They were both really helpful in helping me understand like the nutrition aspect and also like the rehabilitation… doing the ice baths.”

Tessa even explained to Natalie why asparagus was benefit for her “Thor” diet. She shared, “It's really good for, like, losing water weight in a healthy way, and that's really important for the like muscles to pop.”

As for how she felt with her physical size, Portman said, “I think there's, there's an incredible confidence and incredible presence of power and also the responsibility of like what you do will be seen, you know… when you're that tall, and also just the perspective. I could see over people's heads, like, I could see what was happening… I'm usually just seeing the bottom of people’s chins.”

Natalie also explained how her off-screen friendship with Tessa translated on the big screen. She stressed, “Female friendship on-screen I think was really amazing and lucky to experience with Tessa, who I've been friends with for years now since we worked on ‘Annihilation’ together, and then we worked on Time's Up together, so to have that friendship in real life and then get to have it on screen a little bit. I'd love there to be more… Was really wonderful.”

Portman pointed out that a variety of female characters with super powers and personalities sends a good message to kids, too. Calling it a “gift,” she noted, “I know growing up I would be like, ‘Oh, there's the girl in the movie, I guess that's the one I'm supposed to relate to.’”

She also revealed what her kids think about her Marvel role, saying, “It was pretty cool to do something that they were so excited about.”

Natalie gushed about director Taika Waititi, saying, “I love him so much and I'm so in awe of what he's able to do… Just seeing his ability to be spontaneous and create on the fly is unparalleled.”