When you think about the prequels for Star Wars, you probably instantly think about the trio. Composed of Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan Kenobi, Hayden Christensen’s Anakin Skywalker, and Natalie Portman’s Padmé Amidala, the three meant a lot to those of us who grew up with the trilogy. I could never forget the impact that Padmé’s red dress from Phantom Menace had on me as a child. (I wore it for Halloween/my birthday party and one of the lights stopped working and I cried and refused to bob for apples because of my white face paint). But who seemed to completely erase Padmé from his collective is Thor: Love and Thunder director Taika Waititi.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Waititi talked about bringing back Jane Foster and working with Natalie Portman. But he also…admitted to completely forgetting about the fact that she’s in Star Wars: “Natalie said to me, what do you do next? And I said ‘I’m trying to work on a Star Wars thing. Have you ever wanted to be in a Star Wars movie?’ She said, ‘I’ve been in Star Wars movies.’ I forgot about those ones. [Laughs]”
Honestly, hilarious that Waititi just was being honest and completely forgot about the prequels, it seems. But also come on, how can you forget Natalie Portman as Padmé? While I am probably not one to talk about it because I am biased towards them, she is still one of the best parts of that trilogy and someone I can probably never forget, thanks to not only her performance but also because of things like “Natalie’s Rap 2.0” from Saturday Night Live because “say something ’bout the motherf**king prequels, bitch.”
The beauty of Padmé
I’m but a humble prequel fan, I’ve talked about it enough in my Star Wars articles and so I could never forget that Natalie Portman is in the prequels, but I do understand why Waititi might have. Yes, those movies are beloved for a specific generation, and that’s fine. It’s the same way the sequel movies will be loved by the generation they were made for. And Waititi is just outside of who the prequels were made for, so it isn’t shocking that he’s not really thinking of them.
For me, Portman’s Padmé informed a lot of what I loved about Princess Leia in the original trilogy. I saw so much of my favorite princess in the diplomat who could hold her own against the rising threat of the Empire, and I loved what Portman did with the character. It was, for me, my first look into Portman as an actress (I was too young for The Professional), and it gave me a lifelong love of her as a performer.
Do I blame Taika Waititi for forgetting about the prequels and Portman’s take on Padmé? No. But I do wish she’d messed with him a bit and just let him think he’d get to work with her again on a Star Wars movie only to remind him later on that she is, in fact, the queen herself.
(featured image: Lucasfilm)
