Profile: Natalie Portman
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- 6/20/2011 |
- 10:00 am
One of the most exciting things about The Big Brain Club is when you actually see the light bulb go off in a young person's head that says: Hey, I get it! I don't have to choose between being smart and being cool! I can totally do both!
There are a lot of paths that lead to that realization, but one of the most common is when a student realizes just how many of their favorite celebrities are also big brains. When you start to notice that even rock stars and NFL players and People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive work hard in school, becoming the best version of yourself by taking your academics seriously starts to seem like a pretty good idea.
Well, today we take a closer look at another whip-smart celebrity: the Harvard grad who speaks five languages and carried a 4.0 GPA in high school, Natalie Portman.
You of course know Portman from her Academy Award-winning performance in Black Swan, or from other blockbuster films like No Strings Attached, Star Wars (Episodes I-III), V for Vendetta, Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, and most recently, Thor. You know she can act, you know she can dance, you know that she's beautiful...
...but did you know that when she was still in high school, Portman wrote a paper called, "A Simple Method to Demonstrate the Enzymatic Production of Hydrogen from Sugar"? Or that while she was at Harvard she contributed to a study called, "Frontal Lobe Activation During Object Permanence"? Or that in 2006, she appeared at Columbia University where she spoke on the topics of terrorism and counterterrorism?
Yes, it seems pretty clear that Natalie Portman takes her education -- and her love of learning -- very seriously. Think for just a moment about the last time you blew off studying because you had something else come up. Maybe it was a night out with friends, maybe there was something super-important on TV, maybe you just didn't feel like it. Then consider that when she was 18 years old, Natalie Portman skipped the premiere of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, in which she starred, because she had to study for her high school finals.
Look, we don't want you to get the wrong idea here. We're not saying that you need to be just like Natalie Portman. She's a pretty exceptional person, and besides, you've got your own path to carve out. But what we are saying is: being smart and being cool are not mutually exclusive. Many of the most interesting people you'll meet for the rest of your life will have put a high priority on learning. So if studying new languages, or working hard to get good grades, or skipping a big event so that you can study for finals is good enough for Natalie Portman... well, it's probably good enough for you, too.
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Big Brain Club Profile: Matt Damon
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