Hollywood rapscallion Taika Waititi "forgot" Natalie Portman was in the Star Wars prequels
What’s next? Did he forget Watto was in those movies?
No one seems more satisfied with himself than Taika Waititi. And why shouldn’t he be? The Kiwi filmmaker is on top of the world. He’s got a Tumblr-approved pirate show, an Oscar for writing a whimsical Hitler movie, and a second Thor movie primed for boffo B.O. Plus he’s somehow memory-holed Natalie Portman’s legendary portrayal as Padmé Amidala in the Star Wars prequels. Now that we as a culture like those movies for being a singular man’s boring but startlingly accurate vision of how democracies fall to fascism, we must feign the surprise that anyone could forget a line reading like “I will not a condone a course of action that will lead us to war.” [If you listen closely, you can hear the sound of this writer’s monocle falling directly into his martini glass at the mere hint of someone forgetting about Queen Amidala.]
In a recent Rolling Stone interview, Waititi reflected on his first conversation with Portman when he made that classic Portman faux pas and asked her if she would ever be interested in being 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]
With all due respect, Mr. Waititi, Padmé survived the effin’ Clone Wars and the invasion of Naboo, but sadly, not a broken heart, which famously killed her character. So rude. Does he not remember that Kiera Knightly was also in some of those movies? What about Joel Edgerton? Sure, everyone forgets about Edgerton until he turns up in an Obi-Wan Kenobi and reminds people that, yes, the star of Gringo is back, baby.