Portman Passes on Padme, Retires Wacky Hairstyles

Natalie Portman envisions a future free of hours spent in the Star Wars makeup chair.

Do you wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, fearing more awful additions to the Star Wars canon? If so, Natalie Portman is right along there with you.

MTV Movies talked to Natalie, who waxed unenthusiastic about sequels:

“When something works you don’t touch it,” Portman explained to us recently. “You try to create something new that’s positive.”

She gave–thank heaven–a thumbs down to future appearances as Padme in the Star Wars movies, saying, “I spent ten years working on these films…It’s time to let it continue on its own.”

(Though she did add that she was “honored” to have been part of the Star Wars prequels, I’m still guessing her tone was not quite like “it’s time to let my child go off to kindergarten on his own,” but more like, “Jailbreak! I’m done! Don’t make me go back!”)

And she put to rest any idea of updating her starmaking role in Luc Besson’s The Professional, saying that she would love to work again with Besson, but not on a sequel to that film. Next up for Portman is Brothers, a remake of a 2004 Danish film. She’ll be starring alongside Tobey Maguire and oh so busy Jake Gyllenhaal.