With Thor: Love and Thunder now playing in theaters around the world, I recently spoke with Natalie Portman about playing The Mighty Thor/Jane Foster in the MCU sequel. During the interview, Portman talked about the passion of the fans, Taika Waititi’s imagination, the goats, what it was like seeing the finished film for the first time, and the first thing someone should watch if they’ve never seen her work. In addition, she talked about Thor: Love and Thunder’s deleted scenes saying:

“The joy and the sorrow of a Taika Waititi project is that he creates so much brilliance and so much material that the movie could be like an infinite number of things. And it like inevitably means that incredible, hilarious, moving comedy and drama ends up not there. So, there's a lot. I mean, there's full planets that are not there anymore.”

Check out what Portman had to say in the player above, or you can read our conversation below. You can also watch what Chris Hemsworth and Taika Waititi told me about Thor: Love and Thunder's four-hour cut here.

“Thor: Love and Thunder finds Thor (Hemsworth) on a journey unlike anything he’s ever faced – a quest for inner peace. But his retirement is interrupted by a galactic killer known as Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), who seeks the extinction of the gods. To combat the threat, Thor enlists the help of King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), Korg (Waititi) and ex-girlfriend Jane Foster (Portman), who – to Thor’s surprise – inexplicably wields his magical hammer, Mjolnir, as the Mighty Thor. Together, they embark upon a harrowing cosmic adventure to uncover the mystery of the God Butcher’s vengeance and stop him before it’s too late.”

thor love and thunder Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman
Image via Marvel

The film also features Peter Quill aka Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Nebula (Karen Gillan), Mantis (Pom Klementieff), Drax (Dave Bautista), Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel), and Zeus (Russell Crowe).

COLLIDER: If someone has actually never seen anything that you've done before, what is the first thing you want them watching and why?

NATALIE PORTMAN: That's a great question. I guess The Professional is the best place to start, since it was the beginning of anything I ever did.

When did you realize that you being Mighty Thor in this movie meant so much to so many people?

PORTMAN: It's been really, really moving. I think every time I feel the passion of the fans, whether it's at Comic-Con, or whether it's at a premiere, it's always incredibly moving and exciting to see how much it means in people's lives.

And last night, there were some women who were dressed up in character at the premiere, who were telling me that when they were four years old, been really attached to Padmé in Star Wars and this was such a kind of full-circle moment for them. So, that was really wild to see people who had kind of grown up with me, now, as adults, and still being part of each other's lives.

I heard that this film had a few deleted scenes. Was there anything that you were really sad to see go?

PORTMAN: So much. So much I mean, that's the joy and the sorrow of a Taika Waititi project is that he creates so much brilliance and so much material that the movie could be like an infinite number of things. And it like inevitably means that incredible, hilarious, moving comedy and drama ends up not there. So, there's a lot. I mean, there's full planets that are not there anymore.

thor love and thunder Chris Hemsworth Natalie Portman
Image via Marvel

I'm going to have to beg Taika to release a whole bunch of this stuff.

PORTMAN: I pray that it'll end up in like a DVD extra somewhere or that it comes out somewhere. Because I mean, yeah, it's pretty remarkable stuff.

One of the things I love about Taika is that it's literally his imagination on screen. It's wild. There are things that I never expect to see that are in the movie. What's one or two things that you were like, "Oh my God, I cannot wait for people to see this."

PORTMAN: I don't want to spoil anything, but I think we know that there's a kind of world of gods. Right. I think that's been in some of the trailers. And so some of the gods I'm sure you know, which ones, one in particular was hilarious to me.

I lost my mind with the goats. Yeah. And especially, and I don't want to say anything, but the audio with the goats.

PORTMAN: It's so good.

Right.

PORTMAN: It's so good.

thor love and thunder Natalie Portman
Image via Marvel

Because a lot of this is VFX. What is it like for you to actually finally see the finished film?

PORTMAN: It's incredible to see. I think that's part of what is such a eye opening when you see the finished version is how many incredible artists work on it after what we do to create what actually the audience experiences. Because most of what you see is effects artists. But funnily enough, the goats we had real goats like real practical, they weren't actual animal goats. They were, practical kind of sculptures that we had on set with us with like tongues out and everything.

I have to wrap. I'm just going to say, I really do hope Taika releases some of the deleted scenes. Please pass that on.

PORTMAN: Yes. Me too. I feel the same.

On that note, congrats on the movie.

PORTMAN: Thank you. Good seeing you.

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