How Taika Waititi Convinced Natalie Portman To Return For Thor 4
Taika Waititi discusses how he convinced Natalie Portman to return as Jane Foster for Thor: Love and Thunder after the character's less than exciting depiction in past films. Waititi is an Academy Award-winning screenwriter who first rose to prominence for his New Zealand-centric films such as 2010's Boy and 2016's Hunt for the Wilderpeople before rejuvenating Marvel's Thor series with Ragnarok in 2017. After that film's critical and commercial success, Waititi was brought back to co-write and direct a sequel titled Love and Thunder.
Chris Hemsworth returns once again to lead the cast as Thor alongside Christian Bale as Gorr the God Butcher, Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie, Jaimie Alexander as Sif, Russell Crowe as Zeus, and Waititi as the voice of Korg. Following her absence from Ragnarok, Portman also returns to reprise her role as the astrophysicist Jane Foster, Thor's ex-girlfriend who hasn't seen her former beau in eight years. For Love and Thunder, Waititi adapted elements from Jason Aaron's Mighty Thor comics run, which sees Jane take on the God of Thunder's powers while undergoing cancer treatment.
Related: Mighty Thor Explained: How Jane Foster Became Worthy To Wield Mjolnir
During an interview with Fandango All Access alongside Hemsworth and Thompson, theLove and Thunder director discusses how he convinced Portman to return after sitting out the last film. Waititi met personally with Portman and convinced her to come back by promising her "a bit more license to be adventurous and fun" compared to the first two Thor films. Read what he shared below:
I went to her house and she gave me a glass of water… I think that what we did with Ragnarok was, it made these movies appealing to other actors as well, like Christian
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