Natalie Portman keeps landing film roles which fulfil her childhood ambitions

Natalie Portman has joked that the only movie roles she’s now interested in are ones where she can live out her childhood dreams.

The Black Swan star has had a packed schedule in recent months, starring in popstar movie Vox Lux and upcoming sci-fi drama Lucy in the Sky, where she plays an astronaut.

Talking to Vogue Australia about her latest films, she laughed: “I feel like I’m getting to live out my childhood dreams through my roles: ballerina, singer, astronaut. It’s going to be my criteria now for choosing movies that I’m going to be playing – next I’ll be like a mermaid and a firewoman!”

In Vox Lux, Natalie stars as singer Celeste, who is propelled into the spotlight after surviving a school shooting.

She got to work with her dancer husband Benjamin Millepied on the film, who also helped her with the ballet choreography for Black Swan, an experience she relished.

“It was so fun. First of all, I don’t know how I would have done it without him, because he pretty much did it as a favour to me, because I had so little time before we started that I don’t think it would have been possible if we hadn’t been in the same home, to just able to fit in rehearsals whenever we had a moment,” she said. “That was really, really fun, and then also, of course, he’s amazing, and also knows my leg strengths and weaknesses, so he knows how to work around what I can and can’t do.

“Then the dancers were incredible; they had all come off of Beyonce’s tour. I mean, it took me a month of spending hours every day working on this stuff and they learned it like two days. It was really amazing. They were just the greatest women.”

The couple have two children; seven-year-old Aleph and Amalia, two.