Natalie Portman channels her cult Léon character for the Dior Show in Paris | Vogue France

I think confidence comes from so many avenues, but yes, female friendship and encouragement can help remind you who you are. And of course, what you put on, how you present yourself can give you a sense of putting out your identity. Hi Vogue, I'm Natalie Portman and I'm getting ready for the Dior show in Paris. Come, join me. It's really fun now that I live in Paris. It's much easier for me to go to the shows when I'm here, which is most of the time. It's become, yes, a really fun kind of ritual to go to the Dior shows. I love going to the museums. There's so many incredible ones here. Actually, the Musée Rodin, where the show is, is one of my favorites in Paris. They have an amazing garden as well. And I love spending time with my friends outside. We take walks and go to parks with my kids, and it's an incredible city, of course. So Miwoo Kim is the makeup artist who does her magic on me to make everything better. And Philippe Mensa is an incredible hair artist who is doing my hair. My outfit's kind of punk, so I think we're going a little more minimalist on the hair and the makeup. I think we're doing... What are we doing, Miwoo? Very minimal. Minimal. Yeah, very minimal. Minimalist. And Malhot did this amazing gold French manicure. I love going to the cinema in Paris. There's always amazing old films showing at these little cinemas. A lot of them are in the Fifth. And then, of course, seeing big movies, too. I usually go to somewhere in Champs-Élysées and go to one of the big cinemas to see the blockbusters. Yeah, it's a great city for movies. I definitely see a lot more kids' movies, and then also I realize how much you watch those over and over and over again. It's sort of unlike any other movie because you watch so many times. The Miyazaki ones are incredible. My daughter's gotten into some of the older teen movies, like Clueless. My son really likes comedies, like loves anything Will Ferrell, like Stepbrothers. They haven't really seen my movies. I think they saw Thor, the last one, because they were really there for the shooting of it, so it was really fun for them to see. But otherwise, they haven't seen my stuff. It's completely unexpected how something will be received. I really don't ever have an idea. With Black Swan, most people thought, and we thought, like, what are we making? No one's ever done, like, a ballet thriller, psychologically twisted. It was a complete surprise that it was popular. So between working in the U.S. and France, I find the teams to be incredibly talented and hardworking and creative in the same way. But I do feel that in France, it's a much more conducive environment for women to work, I think because there's, like, shorter days and also, like, public childcare. Not that all the women have kids, but it just makes it more possible for women who do have kids. And so, like, the entire young generation of directors here is female. Like, you really see an incredible surge of female talent here. And we're making some improvements in the U.S., but we're not reaching the levels that France is, so it shows how kind of, like, social structures can really allow women to work. I find it most interesting to play things that are so different from who I really am and so different from things I get to experience in my life. So evil, complicated women, I hope, are very different from my reality. I usually find it quite easy to just drop the character and go back to life, but sometimes, like, when I was doing the voice for Jackie, it stayed in me longer. Like, my kids kept being like, why are you talking weird? Because sometimes, especially when you do, like, a voice or an accent, it really lingers. I wanted to become a producer, first of all, because it was an opportunity to work with my friend Sophie Maas, who lives here in Paris as well. And it's beautiful to get to have ideas and bring them to life and be able to have a structure around it and to support directors in realizing their visions. It's a really exciting thing to get to do. I directed once, like, 10 years ago, and it was such an amazing experience, and I would really love to do it again. I chose the look with Ryan, who's my stylist, and Aline, who works with Dior. I think confidence comes from so many avenues, but yes, female friendship and encouragement can help remind you who you are. And of course, what you put on, how you present yourself, can give you a sense of putting out your identity, putting out, you know, your self, so it can make you feel better when you're wearing something that makes you feel like your best self. I'm gonna get dressed now, and I'll show you the look when it's on. The choker and the sort of bomber jacket reminds me of the way I was dressed in Leon. It's very punk. It's good. It's got a little medieval grunge vibe. Bye, Vogue.