Natalie Portman won’t let her son watch the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy

Natalie Portman famously portrayed Queen Amidala in the prequel trilogy released in the early 2000’s, but now won’t allow her five-year-old son to watch them. And the reason makes perfect sense.

Perhaps only second to Hayden Christensen’s Anakin Skywalker, Natalie Portman’s character, Queen Padme Amidala was one of the central characters of the prequel series released in the early 2000’s to wide critical scorn, but record box office results.

Queen Amidala

It’s been more than eleven years since the last film of the prequel trilogy, Revenge of the Sith, was released in 2005, and now Natalie Portman has a five-year-old son who is in love with all things Star Wars. And if your mom fictionally gave birth to the Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa, you might think as a parent you’d be excited to show your children your work, but not so fast.

Portman’s son has yet to see the prequel series, but not because of that one Darth Vader line at the end of Sith, or even because of Jar Jar Binks. Portman has a very legitimate reason for not showing her son the prequels, and it’s hard to disagree with her. Speaking with Jimmy Kimmel recently, Portman explained,

"You know, when I made it, I was like, ‘This is going to be the coolest thing, one day when I have kids, I can show them.’ And boys, of course, are obsessed with it and know all about it before they’ve seen it. Then I realized, I die in the movies. I feel like it’s kind of a scary thing to show your kid."

Indeed. At five years old, regardless of the child’s maturity level, they are not likely to be capable of processing the on-screen death of their mother. It is one thing to explain to a child that it is only pretended, and another to see your dead mother being carried across the screen. So while it might appear at first glance to just be a star embarrassed by what they regard as a bad movie, it turns out just to be a sound parenting decision. Either way, the movies aren’t going anywhere, so perhaps when Portman’s son is a bit older, he can enjoy the prequel trilogy that his mom starred in. Except for Jar Jar. Nobody enjoys Jar Jar.

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So while it might appear at first glance to just be a star embarrassed by what they regard as a bad movie, it turns out just to be a sound parenting decision. Either way, the movies aren’t going anywhere, so perhaps when Portman’s son is a bit older, he can enjoy the prequel trilogy that his mom starred in. Except for Jar Jar. Nobody enjoys Jar Jar…well, almost no one.