This Sunday night, Oscar nominee Natalie Portman will find out if she’s the winner of a gleaming gold Best Actress statuette for her star turn in Jackie—and if recent history is any indication, she may well be taking red carpet beauty cues from her character. At last month’s Golden Globes, Portman stepped out in a modern riff on the former First Lady’s signature bouffant and pale pink lipstick—not that her ability to convincingly inhabit the era-defining look came as a surprise to her fans and followers. In fact, Portman’s acting career is one marked by makeovers, with her hair mirroring her chameleonic abilities.
Since wandering down the hall and onto the scene with Léon: The Professional, Portman’s ever-changing mane has helped elevate her roles from everyday to iconic. In Léon, 12-year-old Mathilda’s raven chop—cleanly leveled at the jawline, with wispy, above-brow fringe framing an unabashedly shrewd countenance—offered a dark sophistication that made her turn as an unwitting hit man in training seem almost inevitable.
Princess of Theed, Queen of Naboo, and original rebel Padmé Amidala fit squarely into the Star Wars universe with stylized lengths that often doubled as exaggerated headpieces—visual shows of opulence and status—while Portman’s portrayal of alluring opportunist Alice Ayres in 2004’s Closer was defined by a cotton-candied wig that echoed Ayres’s own cloaked identity.
Along with an elaborate faux imprisonment, it was a dramatic shearing that colored Evey’s anarchic awakening in V for Vendetta, a haircut that extended to a polished, Paris-ready pixie in time for Portman’s appearance in Wes Anderson’s Hotel Chevalier. And the obsessive spirit of Black Swan was embodied by Nina’s stiff yet lithe frame and immaculately slicked-back ballet buns. Here, with the 89th Academy Awards just around the corner, a look back at the on-screen transformations that helped her get into character.
