Does Natalie Portman play two characters in Star Wars?

Question

I'm watching The Phantom Menace and she seems to play two characters....the ornately dressed queen and the girl that is friends with Anakin. Is she playing her own mother or what??

Answer 1

She is very simply, playing a character named "Padme".

Padme is the queen of Naboo, and as a security precaution, she is disguised as a handmaiden. The girl in the make-up is a decoy. You remember in the forest, as they were pleading for the Gungan leader to help them, the "handmaiden" character steps forward and bows to her counterpart. It is her unmasking and it is the reason the Gungan leader trusts her enough to fight by her side.

(If you were afraid of being assasinated, you might find it useful to pretend to be a less-important person, and to allow a faithful servant to attract any potential attacker.)

Answer 2

Natalie Portman Padme

Answer 3

In scenes where Padme and Queen Amidala appear together, 'Natalie Portman' is Padme, while 'Keira Knightley' is Sabe, one of the handmaidens disguised as the Queen.

At the time of the film's release, the producers ran a disinformation campaign to suggest that 'Natalie Portman' played both Padme and The Queen at all times. In fact, they are not always the same person. For many sections of the film, notably those where The Queen is wearing the black outfit with the huge feather headdress, she is actually a decoy, played by 'Keira Knightley' . The real queen, Portman, is actually disguised as a handmaiden. Various conflicting public statements make it extremely difficult to figure out who is who. Whole websites are devoted to figuring out which actress is playing which handmaiden or The Queen at any given point.

When fully dressed and in make-up, 'Natalie Portman' and 'Keira Knightley' resembled each other so much, that even Knightley's mother, who visited the set, had trouble identifying her own daughter.

Answer 4

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RE:
Does Natalie Portman play two characters in Star Wars?
I'm watching The Phantom Menace and she seems to play two characters....the ornately dressed queen and the girl that is friends with Anakin. Is she playing her own mother or what??

Answer 5

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Honestly, I don't think the fault necessarily lay with Hayden Christensen. They could probably had Laurence Olivier playing the role and it wouldn't have been any better. I think the fault is to be put on Lucas. He wrote and directed it, and unlike with say "Empire Strikes Back," which had the richest acting, writing, and directing, he didn't delegate anything to anyone else. I am convinced that had he brought someone else in, Episodes 1-3 could have been much better. Maybe the movies would have been shorter. Maybe they would have been able to cut out or make the exposition with all the parliamentary maneuvering better digested. Maybe they could have brought some richness and nuance to the characters. But, as it is, Lucas did everything and he simply wasn't interested in anything like that...or simply didn't realize how shallow much of it was. The whole idea that Anakin was just this mopey teenager who felt like he was getting the shaft was dopey. I'm sorry but I never really thought of Darth Vader as Holden Caulfield from "Catcher in the Rye." But, there was a germ in the story that could have been better cultivated. In any case, Lucas wasn't particularly interested in any nuance with Anakin. And the character was young! How much could have HC done with it. I mention this because the older characters had some more depth if only becauce of the skill of the actors, particularly Ian McDiarmid as the eventual Emperor. But, he had so much more to work with, being essentially two characters, and drawing upon the manipulative nature of both. And McGregor had Alec Guiness as a model and the events of the character in those future movies. I should have mentioned this with McDiarmid, too, since the character is prominent in four of the six movies. And while, McDiarmid didn't know the particulars of what is going to happen to the character when he was filming Ep. 1, he knows what is going to happen in Ep. 5 and 6. But, HC can't draw upon anything from the original three movies. There is only Anakin in these movies. Coupled with the vapidity of the dialogue given and the lack of depth, it's honestly amazing that HC was able to do anything with the character, at all. Look, I'm sure McGregor and McDiarmid didn't defer to Lucas in their acting. They were just too skilled at it. But, HC isn't and probably needed guidance, which I am sure Lucas didn't provide. Lucas was more interested in special effects and putting in as many as possible even when they were distracting with little droids the size of cats running around for no reason. So, I can't bash HC. I've heard he was good in "Shattered Glass." I wonder if he had been a little more like Han Solo if that would have made the character better. I know Natalie Portman is a decent actress. She showed more depth in "The Professional" when she was something like 12 years old. Here's all she had to do was say "Oh, Ani..." So, it's all Lucas' fault for the poor acting and terrible lines.

Answer 6

Who Played Queen Amidala

Answer 7

It is very easy to tell when Natalie Portman is the queen. Natalie has a mole on her left cheek. Even when she wears the white face makeup, you can tell it's there. When the queen has a mole on her left cheek, that's Natalie. When the queen doesn't have a mole on her left cheek, it's not Natalie.

Answer 8

No she plays Padme' and Queen Almedia all the same person. Her look alike is Keira Knigthley which both of them at times look like the could be sisters.

Answer 9

I think they are the same
person but she just has
to sneak to be friends
with anakin... that's what
I thought anywayyyyyy

Answer 10

She only plays the Queen...she pretends to be her own hand maiden...to hide who she really was.