Natalie Portman is Vogue Australia’s [IG] May 2025 cover star, interviewed by Hannah-Rose Yee. Christine Centenera styles Portman in Amina Muaddi, Christopher Esber, David Koma, Dior [cover], LaQuan Smith, Marc Jacobs, Maison Alaïa, Stella McCartney, The Attico, with jewelry from Patou, Phoebe Philo, Sophie Bille Brahe and Tiffany & Co.

Photographer Lachlan Bailey [IG], a very busy creative these days, joins a photoshoot that transcends much of today’s media-related fashion coverage.

Maybe it’s just not staring at poorly-executed, dirty white backgrounds, but the styling is terrific, POSES cool yet uncontrived and photography grade A. The fashion story is sophisticated, upscale and flattering to Portman. / Hair by Philippe Mensah; makeup by Miwoo Kim

Natalie Portman is once again living in Paris with her two children, after a decade away from the City of Lights. The Vogue photoshoot also happened in Paris — although Portman misses Sydney deeply.

“Honestly, I think it’s the best place in the world,” the Jerusalem-born actor shares about her time in Australia making ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’. Were Sydney not so far away from family, Portman would make it her home base.

Now, at 43, Portman finds herself in a new home; her hi-profile divorce from French dancer and choreographer Benjamin Millepied complete; seeking out new experiences and putting a different kind of art into the world. Her two children son Aleph, 13, and daughter Amalia, 8, are in school in Paris, and her work schedule is very much driven my theirs.

Portman doesn’t speak of her divorce; nor does she mention her new relationship with music producer Tanguy Destable, better known by his stage name Tepr.

The actor is eager to discuss her upcoming movie ‘Fountain of Youth’, which Yee calls a “globe-trotting extravaganza” that looks like it was fun to make. The movie opens May 23 on AppleTV. Portman agrees:

“It was so fun. It was really a dream offer when I got it. Wait, I get to work with Guy Ritchie and John Krasinski? And all these other actors, between Domhnall [Gleeson] and Eiza [González] and Arian [Moayed] and Carmen [Ejogo], who I love so much. And then we also get to go to all these places that I had never been that I had dreamed of going to, like Vienna and Cairo. Vienna was extraordinary and Cairo was a dream. It’s so rare these days to go to the real places.”

Portman pushes back on the issue of aging in ‘The Fountain of Youth’, although she affirms that her beautiful, aging-naturally mother inspires her not to be afraid of physical aging. What the latex-leggings loving actor is very serious about is her pursuit of “youthful idealism, my youthful belief in people, my youthful passion for what I do and excitement and what lights me up.”

Vogue touches other topics like Portman’s part ownership of the Angel City FC women’s soccer team in Los Angeles; her first voice in an animated film ‘The Twits’; and ‘Good Sex’, a rom-com directed by Lena Dunham. ‘The Gallerist’, staring portman and Jenna Ortega will premiere on HBO later in 2025.

In ending the interview Portman addresses a state-of-being for so many of us.

“ . . . I’ve been feeling like we really need our escapism and good vibes right now from entertainment, so I’ve been trying to contribute in my own little way to that. I’m like, what is our art for? Right now, I really want to put some light into the world.”