The Marvel Cinematic Universe has come a long way since its early days when Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow was the sole female hero and most other women with substantial screen time were relegated to love interests and damsels.
Case in point, Jane Foster (played by Natalie Portman), who was first introduced in 2011’s Thor and returned two years later for Thor: The Dark World. She’s an accomplished astrophysicist and astronomer but is best known for being Thor’s ex-girlfriend. With Thor: Love and Thunder, Foster’s first substantial appearance in nine years (she had a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo in Avengers: Endgame), director Taika Waititi hopes to imbue Foster with a fresh sense of agency.
"It was really important to us that we bring Jane back because people would ask what happened to her and where she’d gone," said the director. "It’s nice to be able to answer that and bring her back, but in a more meaningful way. She no longer is the girlfriend on the sidelines, Thor’s ‘chick’. She comes back as her own person, as a strong, powerful woman who is holding the hammer now and is actually a superhero herself."
In the film — as in the Mighty Thor comic run it’s based on — Foster assumes the power of Thor as she battles cancer and is deemed worthy by Mjolnir, the fragmented hammer the hero carried for five films before it was shattered in Thor: Ragnarok.
Portman says the opportunity to return and revamp the character was "really exciting".
"To get to be a superhero at all is such a rare opportunity [for an actor]," she said. "Certainly getting to be one as you’re turning 40 is pretty much unheard of. It’s not anything that I dreamt I would get to do."
During shooting, Portman leaned on Chris Hemsworth for advice on how to embody a superhero. "He would help me figure out how to do certain things with the hammer," she said. "Oftentimes you’re not actually using anything, you’re pretending you’re catching the hammer in thin air. And so he would demonstrate and help me figure out how to do that, as the expert of 10 years.
"The costume is what made it sink in that this was happening for real," said Portman. "I called Taika right away like, ’I hope I’ve told you how grateful I am’."
Rejoining the franchise at this point in Thor’s journey also afforded Portman the chance to work with real-life friend Tessa Thompson, who plays the warrior-chief Valkyrie. The two met in 2018 while working on the sci-fi horror Annihilation and became fast friends, a bond that was strengthened through their work with the Time’s Up movement.
"My favourite scenes were definitely the ones with Valkyrie," said Portman. "Getting to work with a friend is so amazing because you get to bring all of your real affection and experience with that person to the characters. You’re not just pretending you have this relationship. She’s so ferocious and talented and brilliant and it’s also just fun to get to see your friend."
Going from astrophysicist to a god presents quite the learning curve for Foster. "I think she’s a little overeager," said Portman. "She jumps the gun on things. She’s got to learn a lot of information and luckily she’s got Valkyrie and Thor to help her catch up on what’s been going on."
Similarly, despite a nearly 30-year career, Portman found herself facing new challenges and turned to her co-stars for advice. The first hurdle was figuring out how to get strong, fast. "A lot of that I was learning from Tessa and Chris," she said. "About how nutrition plays such a big deal and how you have to be doing the protein shakes and losing the water weight, you’ve got to do the saunas. There’s all this stuff that goes into it that is really interesting to learn."
With the help of trainer Naomi Pendergast, Portman got into the best shape of her life over 10 months of gruelling workouts. "She did a lot of weight training to get me stronger but also was really focused on getting me balanced as well as [targeting] the small muscles that support the bigger muscles," said Portman. "It was really awesome to turn 40 and feel the best I’ve ever felt physically. To be tasked for the first time with taking up as much space as possible, when most of the time as women we’re asked to get as small as possible. Even things that had been aches and pains were cured by the strength training that evened me out and got me into balance in my body."
That training came in handy during the film’s action sequences, in which Portman did many of her own stunts. "I loved doing all of the stuff on wires," she said. "That was so fun to get to fly and do flips. Learning the choreography was reminiscent of learning dance choreography. Obviously I had stunt doubles who did most of the really difficult stuff, but I did get to learn a bunch of the choreography."
Shooting a series of flashback scenes to Thor and Jane’s relationship was much more lighthearted. "It was so fun to imagine it as this rom-com," said Portman. "And we shot it really indie-style too. We shot like 40 different things in a day ... getting the vibe of that kind of movie."
Shifting between action scenes, rom-com moments and Jane’s very personal struggle with cancer gave Portman an opportunity to explore her character from all sides. "I really love Taika’s ability to not have any rules about how [a comic book movie is] supposed to be," Portman said. "Having that kind of freeform and free possibility is so lucky, and really lucky for [Jane as a] female character, in particular. He really made room for her to be ridiculous and weak, and she didn’t just have to be this kick-ass tough girl all the time, which I think is sometimes the interpretation of what a feminist character would be.
"To me, a feminist character is able to be all the things: Sometimes you’re vulnerable, sometimes you’re strong, sometimes you’re falling flat on your face. It’s nice to have the ability to be human like that."
— Guardian News & Media
